Best Storage Solution for Undergrad Students

[DavidLambert1]

ArcGIS Pro 3.0

What is the best storage site for GIS data for undergraduates in a computer lab-based class?  Students cannot store on the lab computers as the data and projects are wiped nightly.  MS One-Drive may work or students Google drive.  Not sure if MyESRI site is a good solution for students, seems clunky.  I will ask them to backup on thumb drives but inevitably, some students will lose the device.  Looking for the most accessible solution.

[curtvprice]

> Google Drive works great for everything except rasters!

If your file based datasets (gdb, shapefile) have not been corrupted on a synced folder, my experience is it is only a matter of time. This isn't about spaces in pathnames, though of course that's an issue no matter where the data are stored. So just want to reiterate that the only way to safely use ArcGIS Desktop in synching cloud folders is if you turn it off while working in desktop applications -- and you have to remember.  My experience is like most things it will work until the day before the student's project is due. 😉

This tech article was mentioned above should be shared far and wide to students!  When I was teaching, I linked it all over the place in install instructions, syllabi, and LMS so students could not miss it as the convenience of cloud drives is so tempting. So here is that link again as it is important!

Problem: ArcGIS Pro and Cloud Storage Services

[RobertKeane1]

We use a combination.

Supplying data for students is predominately done via ArcGIS Online (AOL) the data can be share via a course group. We also use AOL as a repository for research data and imagery.

Student have a 4 GB network drive space where they can save their project files and a small amount of data.

For our upper level topics and research projects and sensitive datasets we have an enterprise geodatabase running on SQL Server.

Using AOL allows us to also provide students with Named User licenses via the cloud, therefor minimizing licensing issues like give out standalone licenses. We manage our AOL via python scripting. We check each user is still enrolled or employed at the uni and if not their login is disabled and data backed up to a staging log in. Data is stored for three years for students and seven year for academic staff.

Hope this is useful.

Rob Keane