As a keen follower of the move towards cloud based systems, I was interested to see Google’s foray into the online storage market. Google has had its Google Apps suite of web based applications for some time now but has very recently added a storage component to that.

So what does it do? It is probably easiest for me to say the way that I am using the products, as there are a number of ways that different people could use the software. For me, having my email, documents and templates (for letters and spreadsheets) in an on-line environment gives me flexibility with my work place as well as reducing the amount I need to invest in IT infrastructure. Disaster recovery is less of an issue as well.

One of the key benefits is the ability to easily collaborate with people who are not working from the same office. As the administrator for our company’s drive I am able to give people access to the documents and templates that I want them to have access to and not documents which I do not need them to see. This is important for an accounting business as we are dealing with people’s confidential information.

As far as the applications go, the word processor, spread sheet and presentation software are adequate for most things, but do not seem to have the same range of functions as Microsoft’s products. Of course it makes a difference that I have only been using Google’s applications for a month, but have been using Microsoft Office for more than 15 years.

So it is early days for our company and Google Drive, but initial indications are that it is a good fit with our business, which is mostly based around using web based accounting software (in particular Xero) to streamline client’s accounting and tax return processes.