What is Google Drive for and what are its main functions

It is possible that at this moment you are wondering what Google Drive is for. Or that you have an idea of ​​what it is, and then you need to explore what are the tools that it has and that you can take advantage of for your company. Most likely, you will discover that until now you have been underutilizing the office tools of Google Workspace, and that your company can get many more benefits than it had obtained so far.

What is Google Drive

It is a file hosting service, created in 2012 by the Google company, for the storage of data on remote servers spread all over the planet. Google Drive quickly replaced Google Docs. It has the maximum utility of offering a number of office programs and services from the cloud, which can be accessed simply through a device with an Internet connection. Among the advantages it has, is that of offering a free storage service of up to 15 GB to any type of user. Although, depending on your needs, it has plans for a reasonable fee, which adjust to the demands and requirements of all types of users. The space offered concentrates in the same cyberplace all the emails, files, documents and images of a user. Such that they can be accessed synchronously, from any device with internet access, 24/7. As it is a data storage service, it offers a private space from which to safely download the documents and files that are stored there, in any of the admissible formats. In addition, it has a number of office tools that an organization can take advantage of, without the need for expensive servers or equipment. So, there is a better use of useful office space and costs are saved at the same time. Google Drive integrates with third-party tools, with intelligent functions, which shorten the time of any type of process. Utilities like apps and extensions simplify and speed up the pace at which different areas of a business work.

Main features of Google Drive

Well, if the question is what Google Drive is for, the most important thing is that it offers, in the same computer package, tools for word processing, data and presentations, usable from an application on the computer, mobile devices or tablets.

Among the main functionalities and uses of Google Drive are:

1. Create, upload and edit files or documents, with the option of downloading them in various formats. Presentations, spreadsheets, image albums, documents, all available at any time, because they are saved in a private space in the cloud.
2. Run Google Drive space from anywhere, anytime, just with a device with an Internet connection. No matter the distances, you will be able to take advantage of the expert knowledge of your collaborators, thus increasing work capacities to the maximum.
3. Allow collaborative work and joint editing of files and documents. Several users can interact in real time, so that they can work simultaneously and jointly. Google Drive synchronizes all the information, stores all the data and versions of the editions made and under which user or profile.
4. Publish files and documents with ease. Everything you want to expose to the world will be available, either to a group of selected recipients, or to any user on the network, as you decide.
5. Search easily and intuitively. This facility makes it possible to find the data that is needed in the cloud, faster and more effectively.
6. Suggest actions intelligently. By having predictive tools, any Google Drive tool can suggest certain types of actions to the user based on the data collected, all with the aim of improving the final result of the activity.
7. Use voice commands. Thanks to its implementation, it is possible to dictate a text document by voice, for example.

Advantages of using Google Drive in your company

Making use of Google Drive offers, among others, the following advantages:

• Grant as much storage as you require for each account.
• It gives total freedom of access from any device with the necessary permissions.
• Allows access to all linked collaborators.
• Guarantees availability of revisions and editions in real time, in a synchronized manner.
• It allows you to work online or independently (offline).
• Easy to use, since it belongs to the Gmail ecosystem that we all know.
• Automatically convert any documentation into PDF files.
• Allows collaborative work in real time.
• It supports the use of different formats, for which it encrypts the content for greater security.
• It becomes an extension of the company’s business.

Security of the information

Using Google Drive is very safe , because it uses a highly advanced 256-bit encryption method on practically all its remote servers, which guarantees the privacy of user data. In addition, while files migrate from users’ machines to servers, Google Drive uses a TLS protocol that protects data and information, preventing it from being intercepted.

Collaborative tools in the cloud

The benefits of collaborative work can be appreciated with the use of the office tools that Google offers to its users, with the possibility of adding your own domain if the suite is contracted under the Workspace package. Among them, we will mention:

google photos

This tool makes it easy to upload, share and even create albums with images through the cloud. For an SME, for example, it is very easy to create a catalog of events or products, with a gallery made up of images.

Google Groups

This is a tool that facilitates corporate communication , because it allows you to create mailing lists of collaborators, sectors of the organization, suppliers and clients. Thus, you only need to send a single email to a certain list of contacts. It is particularly effective in training environments , for example, because it offers a variety of tools that can be used to train new and returning employees as needed.