UWM Document Storage and Collaboration Services Guidelines

The purpose of this document is to inform UWM students, faculty and staff of the options available for document storage and work group collaboration using campus provided resources.

Contents:

• Introduction
• Overview of Document Storage and Collaboration Services Available at UWM
• uFiles Storage
• OneDrive
• Microsoft Teams
• Comparison of OneDrive and Microsoft Teams Features or Usage by Task
• CampusPress WordPress
• Canvas
• Document and File Storage and Collaboration Services Attributes
• Use Case Guidance for Storage and Collaboration Tools

Introduction

The purpose of this document is to inform UWM students, faculty and staff of the options available for document and file storage and work group collaboration using campus provided resources. Services are provided for both individuals and groups. Some of these services are suitable for storing restricted or sensitive data, and some are not. Some services are baseline university IT services (requiring no additional user fees), and some are fee-based services. The following guidelines will help the campus community to select the option that best fits their requirements in order to assure information confidentiality, integrity and availability.  Access and use of storage and collaboration services establishes an obligation on the part of the individual to use these resources responsibly. Students, faculty, staff and other constituents are responsible for reading and understanding this guide and understanding UWM policies and practices for storing data.

The document and file storage and work group collaboration services decision is based on several considerations:

• Types of documents and files to store,
• Content of documents and files, including the criticality and sensitivity of data being stored and shared,
• Individual, multi-purpose, or departmental/group file sharing and usage requirements, and
• Accessibility requirements.

Overview of Document Storage and Collaboration Services Available at UWM

The following storage services are provided for UWM students, faculty and staff.  Faculty and staff have all these options available to them. While enrolled, students have access to OneDrive through their Office 365 account and to Canvas through their instructor. Students may also be included in one or more of the other options upon request. The request for access to other services will be handled on a case by case basis.

uFiles Storage

The uFiles Storage service provides storage capabilities for individual and group based file shares that can be used by faculty and staff (through their ePanther account). These file shares are available on university owned computers that have been properly configured. These file shares appear as mapped drives and behave like other folders and files that exist on the client computer. The file shares are accessible remotely through the campus VPN service.

The uFiles Storage service has the following features:

• Individual and group access to file shares.
• Mapped folders that utilize your computer’s operating system (no other software needed).
• Available for Windows, Mac and Linux client computers.
• Regular backup of files.
• Per gigabyte charges may apply. Please consult University Information Technology Services (UITS) for details.

Be aware that uFiles Storage:

• Is not accessible from a web browser.
• Cannot share files with off-campus individuals.

OneDrive

Microsoft OneDrive provides cloud based file storage and sharing services that are available to UWM students (while enrolled), faculty, and staff as part of the Office 365 offering. OneDrive is meant to be an individual’s personal data storage service, a document library, where files are private by default, with the capability to share documents with others.

The OneDrive service has the following features:

• All UWM students, faculty and staff have an OneDrive space established for them.
• Online “cloud” file storage accessible anywhere via the internet.
• Ability to use your ePanther login ID and password to sign into OneDrive.
• Integrated with the Office 365 Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Outlook).
• Capable of storing almost all file types. Exceptions are listed on Microsoft's site.
• Provides document management capability (create, delete, move, rename, download, version and share) as needed.
• Provides capability to grant access permission to a folder or a document on an individual-by-individual basis, i.e. light-weight, informal collaboration.
• The OneDrive desktop sync client is available for those who prefer a desktop application instead of an Internet browser application.
• Backups are for service recovery purposes only. Users should not expect to have individual files restored. Deleted files are recoverable from the recycle area for up to 93 days.

When you leave UWM:

• Current student, faculty, or staff accounts are disabled and the files are automatically deleted.
• Faculty and staff accounts are disabled after 14 days.
• Student accounts are disabled after one academic semester.
• Emeritus faculty accounts remain enabled.

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Comparison of OneDrive and Microsoft Teams Features or Usage by Task

CampusPress WordPress

The CampusPress managed WordPress service provides UWM faculty and staff with web publishing and basic data collection (web forms) functionality in support of their professional initiatives and goals. Each person will be able to login using UWM 1Login and request their own CampusPress WordPress site and it will be provisioned for them in real time. CampusPress supports publication of open access/publicly releasable research data (in support of grant requirements). No restricted or sensitive data can be stored on or transmitted through CampusPress WordPress. Content intended for publication on CampusPress WordPress should be stored either in OneDrive or Teams.

• Targeted toward supporting individual and research lab/working group/team/collaborations web sites and their supporting web content.
• Utilizes a self-service model that leverages the consumer oriented aspects of WordPress, with faculty/staff expected to be self-reliant. Utilizes contract provided CampusPress on-demand on-line resources as primary support services, with secondary support available from UITS Help Desk staff and existing distributed IT staff (school, college, administrative units) for more advanced support and for site provisioning (after first auto provisioned site).
• Site content can be written in word processing programs locally and uploaded for publication or authored directly within CampusPress WordPress and either saved as draft or published live.
• Capable of storing almost all file types.
• Faculty or staff will be able to log into the administrative area of their site(s) to manage their content using UWM’s 1Login service.
• Collaborators from outside UWM who are partnering with UWM faculty/staff will be able to obtain an administrative account to assist in the management of content.

Document and File Storage and Collaboration Services Attributes

To assist in determining which document storage and collaboration service is appropriate for a given set of requirements, the following tables are provided.

This table outlines where common file types can be saved.

This table outlines the average amount of storage, speed, access method and cost each option has.

This table outlines each service’s collaboration feature sets.

Use Case Guidance for Storage and Collaboration Tools

Note: All data, information, documents, and materials must meet UWM's security and confidentiality requirements (which are discussed later). 

Possible use cases for these document storage and collaboration services include: