Google Drive… Like all Google product launches, Drive caused a big buzz around the internet. But what is Google Drive? Should you spend your time trying to figure it out? We took a deeper dive into Google Drive and compared it to other similar offerings to make it easier for you to decide.
What is Google Drive?
It is a syncing and cloud storage service with 5GB of free storage. Once you install Google Drive it will appear as another drive in your Windows Explorer so you can create a folder structure, copy, move and directly save files to it easily. You may be thinking – Doesn’t Dropbox do the same thing? It does but at twice the cost and there are some other advantages of using Google Drive over Dropbox.
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Google Drive Advantages
- 5GB for free vs. 2GB with Dropbox (we will get into pricing for upgrades below)
- Google Drive will link with Google Docs and Gmail so you can work on things together with other people
- When viewing docs online you will be able to use the search function that is integrated with the Google Goggles technology for more enhanced search
- Example: Your pictures from your Caribbean vacation are all named 5334.jpeg but when you search for “Atlantis” Google technology will pull up images of Atlantis by scanning what the image is without it being named that way.
- Google Drive will track all the changes you make to a document so there is a revision history that can go back as far back as 30 days.
- Google is Google! There are so many 3rd party developers ready to create products that will sync with Google Drive so you can expect to see many add-ins that will make the experience even more advanced.
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Why should you use ANY cloud services?
One of the best things about storing files in the Cloud is that they are safe! Your laptop or phone may get stolen, lost or just malfunction but if you store files in the Cloud they will be there for you no matter where you are or what device you are using. If you are considering any Cloud service for your business first make sure you are aware of what information you are putting in the Cloud and what type of privacy/security you want to have in order to make sure your data doesn’t get compromised in anyway.
So, how much is this going to cost me?
FREE! Well at least for 5GB of storage it is free. To upgrade to more storage Google Drive is still a very reasonable option, below is a breakdown of how much it costs to upgrade to more storage with Google Drive vs. other storage companies.
- Google Drive: 5GB Free, 25GB for $2.49/month, 100GB for $4.99/month and 1TB for $49.99/month
- Dropbox: 2GB Free, 50GB for $9.99/month and 100GB for $19.99/month
- SkyDrive: 7GB Free, 20GB for $10/year, 50GB for $25/year and 100GB for $50/year
- Sugar Sync: 5GB Free, 30GB for $4.99/month ($49.99/year), 60GB for $9.99/month ($99.99/year) 100GB for $49.99/month ($149.99/year)
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Summary
Try it! It doesn’t hurt to give it a test drive and it’s free! You should even check out some of the other services we listed above to see which product you like best. Watch the Google Drive video here: http://youtu.be/wKJ9KzGQq0w
If you have any questions or are interested in learning more about the Cloud you can watch our Cloud webinar series or contact us and we can explain the benefits for your business.
