Remote storage solutions for individual work files

Overview

There are several choices available for storing your work files. We recommend using remote storage rather than local. The following discussion provides information to help you decide when to use Microsoft OneDrive or the Math Faculty's central file server for remote storage.

Benefits of Remote Storage

  • convenient access to individual work files from multiple devices, e.g., home and office computers
  • secure storage and remote backup of important documents

Storage Solutions

  • the Microsoft OneDrive cloud service available to everyone at UW
  • the Home Drive on the MFCF files.math server available to faculty, staff, and graduate students in the Faculty of Mathematics. This is mapped as the N: drive on Nexus-joined Windows machines.

Remote storage solutions for collaborative work in large groups with fine-grained read/write permissions:

  • the /depts network share (or S: Drive) on files.math
  • Microsoft SharePoint Online
  • Microsoft Teams
  • comparison by IST of OneDrive, SharePoint Online, and Teams
  • Microsoft O365 Learning Pathways, featuring introductory courses on OneDrive, SharePoint Online, and Teams

When to Choose OneDrive or files.math

IST provides a detailed comparison between these two solutions. Some key similarities and differences are highlighted below.

Access

Similarities

  • Detailed setup and access instructions are provided for OneDrive and files.math. These instructions make both OneDrive and files.math appear as regular folders in Explorer for Windows and Finder for Mac.

Differences

  • files.math requires UW VPN to be running when attempting to connect from an off-campus location. OneDrive requires an internet connection but no VPN.

  • OneDrive works with local copies of its files on your computer, whereas files.math does not.

    See OneDrive “Files on Demand” for Windows and Mac for more details.

    One implication of this is that contents of files.math are not available when you are offline, but any local copies of OneDrive files are (though local changes to your files will be updated on the cloud server only when you come online).  Online only copies of OneDrive files are not available when you are offline.

    Another implication is that updating content on files.math is slower than on your local machine, since the former must do everything through the internet connection. In contrast, file modifications in OneDrive are faster since they are performed in the local copy on your machine. The speed difference can be quite substantial for e.g., compiling large LaTeX documents.

  • Neither MFCF nor Microsoft provides OneDrive integration with Linux, though there are several unofficial products to support this. As a result, at present the MFCF Linux servers see only files.math.

  • OneDrive has restrictions on file nameswhich can lead to complications when uploading files. Please contact MFCF if you encounter any issues with this.

    Also related: Microsoft’s tips for troubleshooting common issues with collaborative document editing.

File Sharing

OneDrive offers some capability for sharing stored files with others. IST provides instructions for sharing files internally with other UW members and externally with collaborators outside UW.

In contrast, files on files.math are accessed through one’s UW userid and password, and therefore cannot be shared directly.

Storage Space

OneDrive provides 5 TB of storage to each UW account holder. Maximum size of a file is 100 GB.

In contrast, files.math does not currently impose a storage quota, due to extremely asymmetric demand from users within the Math faculty; however, files.math has nowhere near the capacity to store the entire ~250 GB hard drive of a typical PC for everyone in Math.

MFCF wishes to continue without storage quotas on files.math. With this objective in mind:

  • Math faculty and staff are encouraged to use OneDrive for backup, and reserve files.math for files to be accessed by the MFCF Linux servers.

  • Owners of accounts taking up an enormous amount of space on files.math will be contacted by MFCF to discuss alternative storage options.

Privacy/Security

Similarities

Differences

The key difference is that files.math is administered by UW employees, whereas OneDrive is administered by Microsoft. A few implications to bear in mind:

  • Access by Foreign Government: Microsoft states in its report on law enforcement requests that:"Government requests for customer data must comply with applicable laws. A subpoena or its local equivalent is required to request non-content data, and a warrant, court order, or its local equivalent, is required for content data."

  • This does not protect against US government requests under the Patriot Act or CLOUD Act. The Canadian government has a long history of complying with US government intelligence requests.

  • Access by Microsoft: According to its OneDrive Safeguards Policy, Microsoft engineers do not have access to UW data “unless it is explicitly granted in response to a specific incident that requires elevation of access”. IST can obtain upon request a complete log of all access to UW data by Microsoft personnel.

  • Security: Microsoft has dedicated enormous resources towards providing outstanding security for OneDrive against external attacks. As such MFCF does not believe that documents stored on OneDrive are any less safe than those stored on files.math, despite OneDrive’s being subject to far more attacks.

  • Further information: UW’s O365 Risk Assessment and Privacy FAQ (both apply to OneDrive as well), Microsoft’s Privacy Portal.