After the evaluation of all offers and after a successful pilot operations, Google's cloud solution was chosen in 2015 by the FEM's management. In 2016, free licenses for G Suite for Education (originally Google Apps) were acquired and the G Suite was successfully implemented with the assistance of Netmail. Company Netmail is a certified Premier Google Partner.
The G Suite for Education cloud solution is designed for the needs of FEM staff and postgraduate students. The main reason for implementing G Suite on pef.czu.cz was the use of private gmail.com accounts and the need to migrate these accounts to an official, secure and unlimited platform. Private Gmail accounts were often used for work documents and emails, which was inconsistent with the information security policy of CULS.
G Suite in terms of data security
Official Gmail accounts are fundamentally different from public Gmail accounts for their data security, privacy, security of the account, and availability. G Suite offers professional solution for data security that is qualitatively different from regular unpaid Gmail accounts. All data stored in the G Suite for Education is owned and administered by the organization. Google does not share or allow access to the CULS FEM data, even in the form of anonymous scanning.
G Suite benefits
G Suite is a cloud solution with unlimited storage for emails, files, folders, and backups without the need for any installation. G Suite provides automatic backups of all data. G Suite is provided for schools and universities in full version for free.
G Suite is accessed through the web interface, Google applications have an intuitive user interface and enable seamless collaboration with all mobile platforms.
The main advantage of G Suite is teamwork, sharing all types of documents and their co-creation in real time.
In addition to the own Google Drive's cloud G Suite also includes Docs, Tables, Slides, Forms, Websites, Calendars, Google+ social network, and many more components. For video conferencing Google has a solution in the form of a Google Hangouts with the ability to connect up to 25 participants who can share a screen or edit a document together.
If Google does not offer something you'll find hundreds of third-party applications on the G Suite Marketplace.
Next development of the G Suite
Synchronize G Suite with the LDAP server
Google Cloud Directory Sync (GCDS) was launched at the end of 2016. Since then contact details of all employees and PhD students are regularly updated from the LDAP CULS (Directory Services Protocol) and synchronized with the G Suite contacts. Synced contacts are visible in Contacts and are suggested while writing email recipients within the Gmail.
Two-step verification
Two-step authentication procedure is now possible for log in to an individual G Suite account. Two-step authentication (two-factor authentication - 2FA) provides stronger Google Account security as it requires a second verification for log in.
Two-step verification allows you to protect your account using both your password and mobile verification. Most users protect their account only with a password. If you use two-step verification and someone knows your password, your phone or security key will still be need. Without it won’t be possible to enter your account.
Team Drives
In March 2017 Google released Team Drives that are shared facilities where teams can store their files. Team drives simplify sharing, ownership, and file access for teams within Google Drive. Team Drives are in ownership of the team.
The Team Drive can have only users with full access and therefore a shared team folder does not require a particular owner. This solves the complex assignment of rights to team files after the folder owner leaves the organization. Team Drives prevent documents from being lost if the user account is deleted.
G Suite administrators can manage access for Team Drives users and add new members with full access if the Team Drive have not any yet.
