Office 365 Groups

Shared Filestore

What is it?

A collaborative tool, enabling you to set up a collection of resources to work collectively when writing documents, creating spreadsheets, sharing data, working on project plans and scheduling meetings.

An area where you can create and store data between everyone granted access to the space – managed by the local Computing Officer. And most likely what you’re using now to store research data.

This is different to your H: Drive, which isn’t an appropriate place to store research data.

Where is the data stored?

All Office 365 data is stored in the EU apart from Yammer and Sway, which are stored in the US

https://o365datacentermap.azurewebsites.net/

All data is stored in the UK.

Why is it important to know where the data is stored?

There are data protection and funder specific regulations to consider when storing research data. Under most circumstances data should be stored within the EU.

How can I access the data?

By logging into Office 365 via http://office365.ncl.ac.uk, which will require an internet connection.

You can also sync your data to your personal device using the OneDrive Sync Client.

The shared filestore can be configured (“mapped”) so it automatically connects at login to your campus machine.

There are also a number of methods to access the data away from campus but all require the internet:

Remote Application Service (RAS)     

Webfolders

Filr

Is the data secure and backed up?

Yes - the University has a contractual agreement with Microsoft to abide by Principle 7 of the Data Protection Act 1998.

Yes - the filestore is kept secure and is backed up to protect against data loss and system failures.

There is no need for any additional backup procedures within grant applications when storing data in either of these options. 

How much storage space is available?

Maximum of 1TB.

Up to 500GB is provided for funded research projects. Additional storage requirements should be costed into grant applications at £100 per TB per year.

Can I run tests and process my data stored here?

Not recommended, as your data is stored in the Office 365 Cloud we cannot guarantee the speed of the connection to your data.

Yes, on campus you will be able to access data over a 1gbit network connection.

I need to share data with project partners outside the University?

Created Groups will have an online library of files and folders, which all members will have access to. Permissions can be placed on specific folders to allow only certain members access.

Project partners will require an Office 365 or Microsoft account to become a member of the Group.

Currently it is not suitable for sharing of files and folders to partners outside the created Group. One off sharing should be undertaken with Drop-Off or Filr.  

If a project partner requires constant access to the data the creation of a shared library in Groups may be easier – depending on the nature of the data.

Infrequent sharing should be undertaken with Drop-Off or Filr.  

Can I not just keep using Drop Box and USB sticks? 

Services like Drop Box aren’t recommended as the University doesn’t have a contract with them. There is no guarantee where the data is going to be stored and most likely it will be outside the EU.

USB sticks are still useful but only a temporary storage while travelling or working in the field.

So can I store project data there?

This really depends on the type and size of the data and whether you need to share the data between project partners:

Any storage requirements above 1TB aren’t suitable for Groups.

If your data requires significant processing it should be undertaken in the shared filestore.

You should also check whether your funding body are okay with a Cloud storage solution.

Yes but it isn’t designed for sharing with collaborators outside the University.