Google Drive - The Master Cloud Document Editing, Sharing and Storing System
November 17, 2015

Google Drive - The Master Cloud Document Editing, Sharing and Storing System

Donna Wampach | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Google Drive

My experience with Google Drive has been through my volunteer work with the Society for Technical Communication (STC) - Chicago Chapter. Every year we have a technical writing competition where we judge entries. The judges are scattered throughout the Chicago area. We store our judging forms in Google Drive so we don't have to email copies to each other.

My other experience with Google Drive was two years ago, when I was the chapter secretary for STC Chicago. We store our meeting minutes and committee reports in a monthly meeting agenda document. The meeting agenda and meeting minutes are linked to our website. The use of Google Docs for meeting agendas and minutes make it easier to have only one document updated and distributed.

Pros

  • Google Drive's cloud access allows you to edit documents from any device in any geographic location.
  • Google Drive's shared editing function allows only one copy of a document to be edited and shared, which is a major document control benefit.
  • Google Drive's tracking of edits make it easy to refer back to previous versions if needed.
  • Google Drive's access levels provide controls for who can read and edit documents.

Cons

  • I would like to be able to add common task icons to the Google Drive Document toolbar (Example: cut, paste).
  • For a volunteer organization spread out geographically, Google Drive allows for the sharing of documents in an efficient manner by only using one copy for editing and sharing. Each user can edit the document on their own time.
  • Google Drive's cloud file storing system allows for easy access and retrieval of documents in one location, especially for volunteer organizations who do not have their own server.
I haven't used any other cloud document storing systems.

Key questions for the selection process:

1. What levels of access do you need? (Examples: read only, editing, administrator)

2. What types of documents will you be sharing? (Examples: documents, spreadsheets, presentations)

3. How do I create a shared distribution list?

4. What levels of document access do you need? (Example: Public versus private)

Google Drive Feature Ratings

File Sharing & Management
8.8
Versioning
8
Video files
Not Rated
Audio files
Not Rated
Document collaboration
9
Access control
9
File search
9
Device sync
9
Cloud Storage Security & Administration
9.0
User and role management
9
File organization
9
Device management
9
Cloud Storage Platform
9.0
Performance
9
Reliability
9
Storage Reports
Not Rated

Comments

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