How it works

Users of Gmail and Google Apps for business have always been able to edit documents, spreadsheets and presentations online in a browser using Google Docs. The challenge has been if you want those documents to be readily available on your desktop computer or to easily upload files to Google Docs without uploading and downloading.

Much like Dropbox, there is now a GDrive application for both Windows and Mac and once installed  allows you to save files directly to it, which in turn upload to Google Docs (now renamed Google Drive) online

Not only is it convenient; as soon as you save a file to your GDrive, it automatically gets backed up online across Google’s 33 data centres worldwide. So now you can ditch the external hard drive and forget about remembering to do your own backups.

What does it cost?

The free version gives your 5 gbs of space; which for most users will be plenty. However if you wish to increase the size of your drive to 25 gbs, this costs £1.50 per month.

If you only create and edit Google Docs as against other formats like Word and Excel, then the you have unlimited space available in your GDrive as these don’t take up any storage space.

Why all the excitement?

• Users of Google Docs have often complained that they do not have a local copy of their files; now with GDrive they have instant access them on their computer
• GDrive can be expanded to 15TBs so it’s really scalable for the small and corporate business alike
• As well as editing your documents locally on your computer, you can continue editing online and on your smart phone while away from your desk providing real business continuity
• Gmail users have been unable to attach files from Google Docs to an email; now they can by browsing for files stored locally in GDrive on their computer

What about accessing GDrive on a mobile device?

For now there is only an Android App, however Google are working on an iOS app for both iPhone and iPad to be released shortly. No word on an app for Blackberry and Windows mobile though.

How to install Google G Drive on your computer

1. First you need either a Gmail or a Google Apps account
2. Download G Drive from here
3. Install on your computer
4. Run the GDrive Program and sign into your Gmail or Google Apps Account
5. Choose which folders to sync locally or sync them all

The verdict

Google’s GDrive cloud storage is great if you want to have local access to files already stored in Google Docs and with the ability to store up to 15 tbs of data even the corporate user will be happy.

How 2-step verification works

We are all ready using two step verification each time we logon to our bank accounts by entering a code into a dongle . Google’s 2-step verification is similar and uses your mobile phone instead.

The first time you access your Gmail or Google Apps for Business account on a computer other than your normal day to day machine, after you have logged in with  your username and password, a code will securely be sent to your phone. You then use this code to verify that it is your account giving you access to your emails as normal.

The above process ensures that only you have access to your emails and no one else which is as it should be!

Obviously you don’t want to do this every time you login to your Google account, so you can set it so it will only ask you for a new code every 30 days if you trust the computer you are accessing your account from.  Where this is powerful is when you are using someone elses computer  or if you are using a shared computer at home, in a school or internet cafe.

Protecting your phone with an Application-specific password

What the above doesn’t protect you from is if someone were to steal your password and try to access your google account on their mobile device. To protect you from this, Google allows you to setup a unique password for each mobile device. You only have to do this once and it will authorise each of the devices (iPhone, iPad, Blackberry or Android) you own.

Is is necessary?

So far this year I have received urgent calls from two clients who have had their strong and complicated passwords hacked. With 2-step verificiation, this won’t happen again and their data is fully protected. I like how Google’s 2-step verification works; it takes a little time to set up, but in the long run is worth it.

The video above explains how to protect your account Google Apps for business or personal gmail account.

£30 February 2012 offer

During the month of February 2012, IT Hound will remotely setup Google’s 2-Step verification for you and protect one online acount and one mobile device for £30 + VAT.

To take advantage of this offer call 020 3372 5309 or email hello@ithound.co.uk.

…Enjoy working and play safe online!

So what is iCloud?

iCloud is a hosted storage service that works by storing your music, ebooks, documents, apps, photos, contacts, calendar entries and email and synchronising them all to multiple computers and mobile devices. To enable this service you need an Apple ID, which for those of you familiar with iTunes will all ready have for downloading music and apps.

Pros

As Steve Jobs mentioned at the launch “it just works”. Once all the devices and computers are connected; any changes are simply updated immediately.

Great for those familiar with Apple’s products and services and used to the iTunes interface and managing apps on an iPhone.

If you buy a song or take a picture on one device, it instantly downloads to all other ones, without wires.

You get a free me.com email address which can be used to keep your contacts, email and calendar in sync.

Cons

One thing I did notice is that there is no professional accounting, invoicing, customer relationship management, ,project, help-desk and business planning software .

Only works with Apple’s own applications (iTunes, iPages, iPhoto,) and apple mobile devices (iPhone and iPads); so if you own an Android, Blackberry or Windows phone or tablet; you are out of luck!

You have to sign up for a  .me account so that  email, calendar and contacts can be  synchronised accross all devices and computers; so those businesses wanting to synchronise their company domain name will be left out.

If you want to synchronise documents, you have to purchase iPages for both your mac computer and mobile Apple device.

The verdict

Considering the amount of people who use Apple products in the workplace, iCloud is likely to be an attractive offer, however until it can encompass real business applications and integrate with a company’s actual email domain, I feel Google Apps for Business is a better option. For now I feel iCloud will probably be taken up by the individual user.

Ordinarily for a traditional business this type of move would pose a few obstacles in terms of IT support services to move phone numbers, computers, servers and all the trimmings associated with an office environment.

However because all my business files are stored in Google Docs which is part of the Google Apps for Business suite, I’ve left my computer behind, powered up my Dad’s aging Windows computer, opened up the Chrome browser and typed away. In fact I am writing this blog within Google Docs right now.

So this ease of working has got me thinking why more businesses are not using Google Docs to manage their business files online. I wonder if it is to do with the fact that most businesses are used to the traditional offering of the Microsoft Office Suite (Word, PowerPoint and Excel) and the online environment seems strange or in secure? Maybe its a fear of the unknown or a “it can’t be true” scenario.

I want to share the key benefits of having a cloud computing business where all your files are stored online to help you make a more informed decision before you move to Google Docs:

1. Familiar look and feel?

The Word, excel and PowerPoint equivalents within Google Docs power as much punch. If you are used to creating macros, formulas, cells, and rows in Excel then a Google spreadsheet is no different. Equally setting up tables, bullets and styles and spell checking an important proposal is equally as straightforward when compared with Microsoft Word. Only recently Google announce the ability to create pivot tables which will keep the accountants happy and auto correct for people who simply can’t spell like me!

2. Save as you type

As soon as you have created and named a document, seconds later it saves and literally as you type each letter it saves.

3. Backed up 33 times

Currently Google has 33 data centres world wide which means that every letter I type is being duplicated 33 times. This means you no longer need to maintain a business class server that is probably under utilised and all the complicated offsite backups that go with it.

4. Instant translation

Our client markets have widened so what’s stopping us marketing overseas? However translation fees can be high, so Google Docs provides an in built language translator. I speak French and quickly tested out translating this blog into French and it did a very good job…tres bien faire Google!

5. Real time collaboration

Often we are working with other companies to create proposals and win contracts. The traditional approach is to share a document with the other collaborators via email which means each person is waiting for the previous person to finish editing before they can add their own content. Not with Google Docs, all the collaborators can work on the document at the same time. It takes a little getting used to seeing a co-worker adding diagrams to the appendix while you are writing the sales spiel at the front!

6. Offline as well as online

Questions are continually being asked about what happens when your office broadband goes offline? Well as we have other mobile internet devices we can use them to carry on working in documents as backup, however often the devices are two Small to do effective editing. So if you are using the chrome browser then all your online documents are now saved locally so you can view them offline as well in the rare event of an internet outage.

7. No software installation or upgrading

Microsoft office is quite an expensive product especially when you factor in the time spent upgrading it and the licencing costs to install it on every computer you own. Online editing means there is no software to install and any updates happen as quickly as clicking a link in your browser. Imagine the costs savings you will make by not having to pay an IT support company to install your software.

8. Accessible on any device

Literally any device can edit any of your google docs by logging in with your secure credentials on an Apple or Android tablet or smart phone. I remember once when I started typing a proposal for a client on my Apple computer, ran out of time and had to head off for a meeting; so I finished the proposal on my iPad on the train

9. Complete revision history

I started writing this blog a few hours ago and it has grown in an organic fashion; so much so that I completely wiped out the section on revision history. So it seems quite apt to include it again and all I had to do was look back at a previous version to find the paragraph I deleted and restore it back to its former glory right here.

10. Integration with Microsoft Office

Some users simply prefer the office suite so Google have enabled you to create documents in Word, Excel and PowerPoint and automatically save them in Google docs using Google Cloud Connect So you get the power of your favourite application and the peace of mind that your documents are immediately backed up online.

Daily businesses are managing their documents online and there really is nothing stopping your business from experiencing the same power by moving your documents into the cloud as well with Google Apps for Business.

How to shift to a new way of working online?

1. The internet – a central home for your stuff

We rely on the internet to do do over 85% of all our communications, whether it is to send an email, make transactions with our bank or buy goods. We appear to trust the internet for doing a multitude of activities and it is a great vehicle to move information from place to place with ease.

The key is to shift your information (emails and files) away from the many devices and to bring it all together and store it securely online in one place. Just imagine having your own business filing cabinet that is accessible only by you or your business!

2. Work anytime, any place, any where

The Internet acts as a super highway in which your information can flow and now we have Internet connections on our phones and tablets too. This means that you can access your information literally “anytime anyplace anywhere”. This creates the opportunity for you to make decisions on whether you can make a meeting by accessing your online calendar, pull up a presentation on your latest product range to show to a prospect on your laptop, or deal with emails using your smart phone on the train so you have an empty inbox when you return to the office.

3. No more backups

 Working online means all your information is securely stored online and duplicated accross many data centers worldwide; this duplication creates many backups for you. So now there really is no need to have your own local backup, because once your save an email or a file online, it is automatically backed up to another data center. Currently if you were to store your documents in Google Docs, part Google Apps for Business; it has  33 data centers worldwide; so your data is backed up that many times!

4. Collaborate with ease

Historically the only way teams could collaborate on a document was to email each other, which created many versions of the truth and hard to coordinate projects. With all your files stored online, the people who have access to the files can work together accessing the latest version instantly. This creates a really powerful way to get things done and can also be extended to working with other companies to deliver products and services.

5. Reduce costs

If your information is being managed online in data centers that have their own inbuilt maintenance, you will have no software to install or costs involving backup and storage. And with no systems to maintain you could be looking at a 25% reduction in IT support costs.

6. Business continuity

The old way of working if a system went down or your business was attacked by a virus was to experience downtime. Now there is no need for this and instead you can experience 100% uptime because all your information is accessible anywhere and anytime. Even if you were to experience a hardware failure like your computer breaking down, you can continue working on your tablet or smart phone because your information resides online.

7. Extend your business

This article has mainly focused  on email and documents, however you can integrate more parts of your business into the online experience. For example managing your customers through a CRM system, tracking invoices and utilising project management tools. All of these are directly linked to your emails and files creating a centralised and integrated business.

What’s stopping businesses going online?

Well literally nothing and with sufficient planning you could be up and running in days. However for some businesses, there are fears surrounding security and the internet itself-ask you self this question, when were you last without the Internet for a substantial amount of time? These days even if your office broadband were to go offline, you have a mobile phone network to provide you with a connection to your data immediately. Security wise, well the encryption and protection for storing information online is just as secure as banks…and we have been trusting them for years!

As well we have a culture of owning property and having it visible in front of us on our “own” servers and computers. But when you consider how much these devices are costing you to run and maintain; isn’t it time you shifted away from that old way of working?

Take steps now to super charge your business

All of the benefits talked about in this blog have been around since 2006, so its nothing new. In fact many of your competitors, customers and suppliers will be taking advantage of the cost savings and business efficiencies and are all ready working online. To find out how you can do it foo your organisation, check out our feature on Google Apps for Business.

Well in the UK we are having some splendid weather and as the heat creapt in through my kitchen window and the wobblyness and squeakiness of the kitchen table began to irritate me further; I forgot the fact that I dont actually have to work from anyone location. So I jumped on my bicycle and headed off to “Gracelands” (just a reminder that I’m in the UK so I wasn’t about to get all hitched up in gold and silver and start singing Elvis style – instead “gracelands” is my local trendy cafe that serves yummy food in Kensal Green London).

Once there I opened up my iPad and began munching on a fabulous salad full of exquisite ingredients. I use Google Apps for Business for my communications so any emails I write, delete or change are automatically updated the moment I return, so a real timesaver. Once that was sorted and the Americano arrived it was time to enter the Rapid Leverage Forum and connect with other like minded internet marketers and check in on any updates on google+. Then desert arrived and I finally to begin writing a proposal using Google Docs for a client who wants to ditch their server in favour of a more mobile ways of working!

From a personal level I feel so much more energised and motivated working away from the home/office rather than being stuck in the same place every day. I can of course work anywhere because all my data and communications are securely stored in the cloud – but I wonder just how limiting it must be for a business who can only access that presentation or email when they are in the office or indeed how much it is costing them to pay for office space and IT support for a server that is using high amounts of electricity. I imagine giving staff the freedom to become more creative outside of the office, feel more motivated because of the change of environments can only increase their well being as well.

It really is a reality that we can have right here right now, to work anywhere we chose giving us that ultimate flexibility and to create cost saving ways to run our businesses.

The one thing that holds us back from working away from our desks is the information we are saving (files and emails) and where we are saving them. A lot of business owners are still managing their critical business information as if the internet never existed!

Typically I am finding companies that have some of their emails in Micrososft Outlook, odd address books on an iPhone which they plug in to their laptop to update it. The same goes for documents, they are hidden in any number of locations. All of this information is not updating all the devices that the person uses and in my mind if you dont have a central place for all your inforation that is accessible “anytime any place, anywhere” (those old enough will remember the Martini advert? ) then you really can’t make informed decisions.

The internet is really secure these days and we rely on it to do our banking, so why not our files and communications? its very much a change of how we work, in fact using services such as Google Apps for Business for our communications and Egnyte Cloud File Server for our files actually makes life simpler (add on one device, the other gets it too; update on your phone and your desktop computer mirrors the change). Now all business users have to do is change something once and forget about it.

I’d love to hear about your file and email synchronisation problems and help steer you to a more peaceful and productive life; please leave comments to this blog.