If you have more than one or two people that work at your ministry, working on different projects can become a bit of a hassle. Some people use USB drives to transfer the projects while others try and email back and forth. Yet, there are better solutions out there for you to use through the idea of shared network drives.
A shared network drive is a central location where anyone with permission and on your network can access the folder. The term “on your network” has become diluted now that that cloud is everywhere, but the idea still remains the same. Here are some options for you to consider.
The 4 Best Shared Network Drive Options
- Google Drive There are a bunch of great features within Google Drive that make it a worthy competitor. You instantly get 15GB of free storage within the cloud service and if you signed up under their non-profit, you will get 30GB per user free. Even better, they have a great desktop and mobile app selection for optimal performance as well as a version history for going “back in time.” If you need more space than what is provided you can get 100GB for $5/month, 1TB for $50/month or 16TB for $800/month.
But that is not even the best part of all of this. If you are using a shared network drive, the best reason to consider Google Drive is the Google integration into its other web apps. If you are ministry heavily uses GMail, Google Docs, or any other number of products by Google, you need to use this. If not, consider the others below.
- Dropbox We have already reviewed the Dropbox iOS app here, but some extra details that you need to know is that their pricing plan is a bit more expensive than Google Drive, but the one thing that I hear over and over is how easy it is to share documents between people. You in two clicks you can share links to individual files or whole folders via email, messenger clients or social media. Not needing a ton of space but a simple to use program? Use Dropbox!
- Amazon S3 Cloud Storage If you take thousands of photos monthly, do video work of any kind, have a high traffic website, or simply want to save a lot of money with online storage, consider Amazon’s S3 Cloud Storage. Now, this is different than their consumer Amazon Cloud Drive which is significantly more expensive per gigabyte. This pricing plan costs about $10 per 1 TB of data used as well as in and outbound traffic costs, but the price is SIGNIFICANTLY lower if you are looking for a great shared network storage option.
- ownCloud If you want high capacity storage at a low cost but without the in and outbound transfer costs and are willing to setup your own dataserver and install some software, ownCloud is perfect. It has everything that everyone else has with one simple install on your webserver, a great manual for administrators and users alike, and you can customize your storage to meet your own needs. [HT Wesley Stout]
What shared network drive options do you utilize?
Digital Torres says
I would take issue with some if not all of your shared network drive options. Primarily on the issue of security. All of those options leave the carrier or service provider with the ability to view your data at any time and without your notice. Unfortunately, this is the reality we live in.
As an alternative I would recommend a locally installed NAS or Windows Server. Drobo is a great product that offers redundancy with all of their products and easy to manage interface. And you can always enable mobile access to your data using a product like Tonido which keeps your data on your privately owned devices.
Lastly, if you must use a cloud service to share or backup your data I would suggest SpiderOak. They are the only private online backup service available and they are incapable of reading your data since the private key is not stored on their servers.
Thanks!
seventy8Productions says
The final option actually does fall into the security concern that you have. I do wonder, outside of information such as phone numbers and addresses of congregation members or financial supporters, why the need to have security that tight? Is it a bad thing that they would read your sermons or hear your videos on Jesus? It might actually be a good thing.
Roberto Torres says
True but the information you mentioned, personal phone numbers, addresses and financial information make it absolutely necessary to keep things secure. The investment is minimal but the return is enormous.
seventy8Productions says
I would almost put those documents in a completely different location. If you have a great IT company, something like http://www.gotoassist.com is a personally great option that not only is secure but tracks openings and permissions.
Roberto Torres says
I personally haven’t deployed ownCloud. I have done some reading on it but would like to do some testing of the product.
seventy8Productions says
If you do, let me know what you think of it!