google drive gets described

Google Drive is a cloud based storage system created by Google that allows users to store, share, and edit files with collaborators. Google Drive includes Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides which are the online Google equivalent of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint respectively. Google Drive allows users to create documents, invite others to collaborate with them on a single document all at the same time, save items in the cloud storage, and edit documents created in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint online easily.

I began using Google Drive since the beginning of it's inception in 2012 for projects in my undergraduate career.  At the time many of the features that Microsoft had on their versions were not yet available on Google's and it created quite the disputes among my classmates when trying to work on projects.  For example, many of the formulas you use in Excel did not exist at the beginning of Google Sheets, they had to be added over time.

For businesses, Google Drive offers a special version just for businesses. When Google Drive for Work first came out in June 2014, many were concerned about what it would mean for businesses. According to an article on readwrite.com, companies need to be careful of what they upload because of intellectual property laws surrounding hosting files on cloud services and who retains the rights to the documents. What makes Google Drive for Work so special based on the wikipedia article is that it "features unlimited storage, advanced file audit reporting and eDiscovery services, along with what Google calls "new fine-grained controls that let admins customize the Drive experience, such as which employees can install the desktop sync client". Users can upload files as large as 5 TB. For companies with less than 5 users, the storage limit is fixed to 1 TB per user. A press release posted on Google's Official Enterprise Blog assured businesses that Google will encrypt data stored on its servers, as well as information being transmitted to or from them. Google will deliver round-the-clock support to premium users and has guaranteed 99.9% uptime for its servers."

However, Google Drive is not your only option when it comes to cloud storage options. Many users are also turning to Dropbox, Amazon Cloud, Box, Apple iCloud, and many more. Each of these alternative comes with their own pros and cons.  It is up to the user or the company to decide what is best for them and their needs. The biggest issue around many of these cloud services is who owns the content and can the service "steal" the ideas that have been uploaded or stored there by users.

The nice thing about Google Drive compared to some of the other services is that it allows you to edit the documents online without downloading and reuploading. Additionally, multiple users can be editing a single document at the same time.  This can come in handy when working on group projects in the classroom or in the business world.  You can even have multiple users working on the same document without all being logged into their respective Google accounts. As the image shows, Google will identify each participant with an animal character to distinguish who is editing where.  I particularly enjoy the fact that one was a chupacabra.

Overall, Google Drive is a great way to bring many people together over creating and editing documents.  Logged in or not, anyone can be granted access to the Google Doc, Sheet, or Slide via an email or given access address once the document is created.  Google Drive is also a great cloud storage device that allows the average user 15 GB of storage for all types of files. When collaborating on a project or all needing to look at one document while it is edited, Google Drive makes it easy.