Who is using a cloud service to share data between the office and the field? Are you using a personal cloud or some other cloud service? I like the idea of having network attached storage with remote access so field crews can have the capability to download and upload data remotely. What are the implications of using this kind of technology? Pros?? Cons?? I just got to thinking about it today and was wondering what other people in the industry are doing. I suppose with newer tablet data collectors make the upload/download sharing may be a bit easier.
I set ourselves up with DropBox. I love it!! We have a lot of data and files all at our fingertips. With the app on my phone, I can access anything, anywhere.
We started emailing files back and forth, that got old. We moved onto LogMeIn and just moved files back and forth from the main computer---that too got old.
With dropbox we created a business account. Moved all the files to it. You can download the software to your computer(s) and it acts as another drive. So in explorer, all you have to do is open the drive, (as you would desktop, C:, CD:, etc)
It's very quick, just as quick as any other drive.
The one feature I do like most about it and somewhat hate at the same time:
Say I open a Excel spreadsheet to edit some information. At the same time someone else opens the same sheet and does something with it. What happens is Dropbox automatically creates a conflicted copy. That is nice rather then overwriting something. But then you have 2 (or more) copies and have to merge the data manually. That is a pain, but at least no data is lost.
You can quickly set up other Dropbox folders and share them with clients, other surveyors or whomever you want.
Example: Say you scan in a bunch of maps. They are 20MB's-too large to email. You create a folder say: "For Bob Smith". You then send a invite to Bob. He now has access to that folder and it's contents. Once he get's what he needs you simply delete the folder or keep it if it's a common occurance with Bob.
One more great feature: Even if you delete something, say an old CAD DWG that has been updated. Dropbox keeps it for I think a month or more. So if you say, "Damn, I deleted the wrong file, or shoot I forgot to write something down", you can still go back and get it. I am not sure that works with the free version, I pay to have the extra space and features.
We've been using TCC, it's well suited for our needs. You can set up multiple sites and choose who has access to them. We're only using the "free" version and all we're using it for is to move data back and forth between field and office. If you want to get fancy with client sites, etc., you'd need something with more features.
> So in explorer, all you have to do is open the drive, (as you would desktop, C:, CD:, etc)
>
> It's very quick, just as quick as any other drive.
>
Just to clarify: I'm pretty certain he's referring to "File Explorer" not IE (just so you MS-haters don't need to get your panties in a snit). 🙂
Using File explorer [after someone showed me to use it properly], I don't ever bother with any FTP programs any longer. Makes deploying websites MUCH easier.
E
We use Google Drive, DropBox and another service. The only thing I'd like to figure out is how to use these from field data collector (we use VIVA CS15).
