Google Shared Drives

Google shared drives is a shared space where teams can easily store, search, and access their files anywhere, from any device.

Files in shared drives belong to the team instead of an individual. Even if members leave, the files stay exactly where they are so your team can continue to share information and get work done.

Highlights

• Files are owned by the team, not by an individual.
• All members of a shared drive see the same content, which makes permissions easy to manage.
• When a user is added to a Google Group, they’re automatically added to all the shared drives that include that group.
  • This can make onboarding and offboarding team members easier.
• You can add external users to a shared drive.
• Can share individual files with any user, not restricted to shared drive members.

Considerations

• Certain actions that can be done in Google Drive, such as folder level sharing, reduction of access, etc. are not available within shared drives.
• Offline access to files from shared drives is only available with Google Drive for desktop.
• Naming Conventions - Since shared drives are not automatically associated with a department, college, or group, you may want to adopt a naming convention that includes a unit identifier. For example:
  • CEHD_Project 1A
  • Psy_Office Manager
  • MedEd_CommitteeName
  • CHEM_Chem301_Lab2
• Use Box Secure Storage for Personal Health Information (PHI) - users who work with Private Health Information (PHI) should use Box Secure Storage instead Google Drive. Box Secure Storage is the University’s storage solution for sensitive and private-highly restricted files.