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Storage Feature Comparison

The following depicts the three main sources of storage available campus-wide to the Wesleyan community and their associated features.  Storage needs vary by size and scope of data, requirements for access, and ability to perform operations.  No one storage need addresses all and understanding the limits and features of each helps to determine the best solution to meet the need.

Storage Features	Wesfiles	Dragon	Google Drive
Campus vs. Off-campus Use
Easy off campus access without VPN	✓		✓
Supports non-Wesleyan user access	✓		✓
Connection Type
Offers client install for connection	✓		✓
Mounts as volume/drive letter	✓	✓
Web interface available	✓		✓
Connection Speed
File transfer for large files or large numbers of files		✓
Fast desktop access and directory listing		✓	✓
Permissions Control
Owner can assign permissions/sharing without ITS	✓		✓
Supports group creation and permissions	✓
Share read/write with non-Wesleyan users	✓		✓
Storage Space Quotas
Uses quotas	✓	✓	✓
Easily expandable quota *	✓	✓
Special Functionality
Active use of databases (i.e. Filemaker or Access or EndNote) on storage		✓
Ricoh scan to folder capability		✓
Live statistical analysis		✓
Simultaneous editing			✓
File versioning	✓		✓
Activity logging **	✓		✓

 

Google Drive allows for the storage of all types of documents and will synchronize the Google Drive desktop folder to the server.  Accessing these files from the web interface requires downloading the file in order to work with it.  Sharing non-Google Apps files is possible, but care should be taken that multiple users can overwrite each other's work when two users are working simultaneously. 

 

* Currently Google Drive is limited to 5GB.  Google plans to allow for expansion of that limit in the near term.
** Logging is available in WesFiles though is not on by default.  Logging must be enabled at the folder or file level. 

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