In this game we rely heavily on our computers and it is crucial that we keep our hardware and software tools up to date. We were due a computer upgrade later this year but decided to bring it forward a few months and have done things a bit different than normal. Rather than purchase a pair of new laptops, we decided to opt for a pair of HP all in one PCs - these comprise of 24 inch monitors with all the PC gubbins built into that, there is no traditional base unit as such. We decided to keep our laptops so we can work away from the workshop if we wish to. The problem we faced was transferring files from laptop to the new PCs if we decide to work that way. For example, I could create a new mug print file on my laptop but i would need to transfer it to the PC in the workshop to print it. As a one off I could email or use a USB thumb drive but what if I create multiple files, etc? Using email would not be a good idea because of file size limits so a USB thumb drive is the best option but still a bit of a ball-ache, and I tend to lose them quite often! This is where Google Drive comes in - we now have all 4 PCs syncing to the 'cloud' and each other. We set it up in such a way that each machine has a local copy of all the files, effectively creating multiple back ups just in case something goes wrong with any of the PCs. Sharing new fonts, images etc is now so much easier because one of us can just copy a file to the drive and it will automatically transfer those files to the other machines. We have found this to be a complete game changer and has helped us become a lot more efficient in what we do. I am able to sit in the workshop and work from the PC there and if I wish to, continue from where I left off on my laptop later on from home. Sadie tends to bombard me with dozens of new fonts each week via email, but not any more! She simply drops the fonts into our 'shared' folder on Google Drive and we install to each PC from there.
Google Drive is available with 15Gb of storage free of charge which is shared across Gmail, Google Drive and Google Photos. Extra storage is available starting with 100Gb at £1.59 per month (or £15.99 a year).