Google has announced a new desktop application called Drive File Stream to access Google Drive files on demand.
The new application streams a user's Drive files directly from the cloud to a Mac or PC, which Google hopes will free disk space and network bandwidth for companies.
The tech giant launched the Drive File Stream Admin console settings on 6 September and is looking to launch the software for end users on 26 September. Google claims that it will take up almost none of a user's hard drive space and they will spend less time waiting for files to sync.
Google also announced that Google Drive for Mac and PC is officially deprecated and will no longer be supported from 11 December 2017. It will shut down completely on 12 March 2018 too.
The company highlighted that in addition to installing this new software, users can also upgrade to the new version of Drive for Mac and PC called Backup and Sync. This synchronises local files in a user's organisation to Drive on the web to make them available on all a company's devices.
If users run Drive File Stream and Backup and Sync on the same machine they will be asked if they want to stop syncing My Drive with Backup and Sync to save disk space.
Administrators can now choose a sync solution for their organisation and turn sync on too.
Last month, Google officially unveiled Android O, the eighth installment of Google's OS for mobiles. After much speculation, the name turned out to stand for Android Oreo, which Google announced at an event in New York. It will slowly be rolling out to Pixel and Nexus Google devices but there is no official timescale for it to arrive on other devices.
Image source: Bigstock
