The university’s policy around storing highly sensitive, confidential and personal data in the university governed cloud storage details our processes for classifying and handling university data. The primary location for storing university data is Microsoft 365, including OneDrive for Business and Teams.
Exactly where you store your data will largely depend on who you want to share it with. Below we share some good practice tips.
Personal use, or sharing with just a few contacts
We recommend that you store your personal files in OneDrive for Business. This is because OneDrive is available from anywhere via login.gre.ac.uk, it provides automatic version control and deleted documents remain in your recycle bin for 90 days or until you empty it.
Your cloud storage in OneDrive for Business is private until you decide to share with others. You can share a document from your OneDrive with a with a small number of colleagues or students, giving them either full or read-only access. You can also see who a OneDrive file is shared with or stop sharing at any time.
To share files with an external contact, please review the Procedure for Data Classification, Labelling and Handling to ensure the data remains protected.
Sharing with a larger group
To share with larger groups, Microsoft Teams is recommended. Teams allows you to collaborate in real time, view previous versions of a document or update it from anywhere. For more information on Teams best practice, and creating public Teams, visit our Teams Governance and Information Security webpage.
USB Storage
Where possible, avoid storing university data on external devices such as pen drives and external hard drives. Use the Microsoft 365 cloud storage which you can access from anywhere.
Where the data is classified as highly sensitive, confidential or personal, and there is no other option but to use external storage, ensure that you use an encrypted USB storage device and ensure that a copy of the original data remains within OneDrive or Teams.
For more information, please see the Policy for Mobile and Remote Working which references external storage devices. For additional support, contact the IT Service Desk.
Guest access
Guest access can be provided to specific Teams within Office 365 for external contacts. The Microsoft Teams Guest Access Request Form should be completed by a member of staff and submitted for review.
Guest access cannot be provided to students. Please contact the IT Service Desk if a student is having issues with access to Microsoft Teams.
