Staff and students are now well on their way to moving their data from their Z: drive to Microsoft OneDrive.

From the end of this month (January 2020), access to existing personal (Z:) drive will be restricted to read only. R: and S: drives will be reviewed with colleagues starting in Spring 2020, with the aim to arrange relocation to Office 365 where possible.

Read only means you will no longer be able to save new data or make changes to existing data on your Z: Drive. You will only be able to access your data, copy and paste it elsewhere. This will be temporary and all access will be removed later this year.

With little over two weeks to go you need to migrate your Z: drive data now – for more information click here or attend an O365 migration workshop – New dates have been added.

Staff and students already have access to 5TB of OneDrive storage through Office 365. Even more space is available when collaborating with others through Microsoft Teams.

Microsoft OneDrive offers greater flexibility, capacity and collaboration. It also provides a greater degree of security for storing our data.

As well as your personal data – plans are now well underway to move data from research (R:) and shared (S:) drives. Information Services are on hand to support colleagues in migrating their research data and their team’s data on shared drives starting in Spring 2020 and would encourage data owners to contact their local Campus IT Support.

Chief Digital Officer, David Hill said: “We know many of our colleagues and students have already made the move to Office 365 and have access to the benefits of this service.”

“Cloud storage provides our staff and students with the best platform for collaborative learning, accessing their secure data globally, more storage and ensuring the stability of their data.

“If you are yet to join the rest of the university in migrating your Z: Drive I urge you to set aside the small amount of time required to do so.”

Director of Governance and Assurance, Jason Carter said: “This is a great opportunity for us all to get our data management in good order. I strongly recommend that we all use this time to review the data we currently hold and make sure we only move what we need. This will really help the University in our GDPR compliance.

“As O365 offers a much more secure place to hold our data, it will also support researchers in meeting your funders’ terms and conditions. Remember – we shouldn’t keep data just in case it’ll be useful one day, only if we have a good reason to do so.”

IT specialists will support staff and students, especially those with complex storage needs. If you think you may need assistance in migrating data to OneDrive or have a specific issue or requirement please contact Campus IT.

To start your data move now more information can be found here.