We have 3 office locations. I would like to find a solution to use Google Drive as a cloud storage server, but stored centrally on a NAS in each office location. Let me explain:
Solution need to work even if no access to internet momentarily
If we choose not to download/sync all files on each computer:
(a) no access to file without internet momentarily
(b) each time we want to work on a file, we need to re-download it, involving time lost
Ideal would be to be able to have desktops with NO data storage capacity. This would save on maintenance and lots of headache when files are saved of each computer.
Hi there, I asked our engineers about this and this is what he said:
This is possible by installing Insync on the NAS and having each user access the files by using the NAS as a network drive. Limitations involving network drives apply.
Also, if you want to have offline access to Google Docs they should export them in MS Office or Libre Office formats.
Subsidiary questions: Will then Insync manage all the access rights on the NAS?
The goal is obviously to have an integrated solution where folder hierarchy, organisation and access rights are managed only at Insync level, and its Insync that then authorizes each user to access the folders he is authorized to, being the copy that is on the NAS when he is in the office or the copy on the cloud when he is ouside. And therefore we can as well get all the security, authorization and usage reporting functions on all accesses from each user on files on the file wherever they are even on the different NASs.
if access rights have to be updated individually on each Insync and there on each NAS then it defeats the purpose.
Say we have 20 users. and one folder is shared by the 18 of them.
A) Is the folder stored once on the NAS and only the 18 authorized users have access?
B) or is the NAS only the local storage place for each users account and therefore the folder is actually stored 18 times on the NAS? and then synced 18 times back and forth on the Cloud ?
in case of B) obviously each user could access only his folders and authorizations would be managed only at insync, But:
NAS would be really only an external drive for each user.
we would have to create manually a separate folders on the NAS for each user, target that respective folder as local storage for each user and manage NAS access right manually separately to Insync, and replicate that in every location/NAS.
it would defeat the traffic reduction goal as each time one file is updated it would be sent back and forth 18 time out and back in the office, just on one NAS as opposed to 18 different computer drives.
@Dan_Meyer: Insync wouldn’t be able to manage the access rights on the NAS. It just syncs the Google Drive files of the accounts added to it to the local computer. Access rights to the local files and folders should still be managed by the administrator of that computer.
For the example of the folder being shared by 18 users, do you mean that each user has a Google Drive account and the folder is shared among those accounts? Or do you mean that the folder is a local one on the NAS and it is shared by 18 users?
For the first case, the folder would be stored 18 times on the NAS. Each user would have their Google Drive account added to Insync, and Insync will then sync each user’s Drive account on separate folders.
For the second case, the folder would only be stored once on the NAS. Only one account will be added to Insync (a sort of shared team account) and access will be managed by the administrator of the NAS.