University Information Services (UIS) offers a range of storage services for different needs. There are services if you:
- want to store personal files and documents
- want to store files and documents that you share and work on with your team or with a group
- are a researcher who wants to store research data
UIS also offers storage aimed at IT staff working in institutions and departments. These are services if you:
- want to offer more storage to users connected to the Cambridge University Data Network (CUDN)
- want to keep an offsite copy of data
- want to store large volumes of data in the cloud
We also have information about how to archive your data.
Individuals who want to store personal files and documents
UIS recommends OneDrive for documents and files that are personal to you. OneDrive integrates with Office 365 including Teams, Microsoft Word and Outlook. It is also free, offers generous storage space and you can use it when working remotely. You should use a SharePoint site linked to a Team in Microsoft Teams for working documents that your colleagues also need to access. OneDrive is suitable for high impact (level 2) data.
Find out more about storage options for personal files and folders
Teams and groups who want to store shared files and documents
UIS recommends using a SharePoint site linked to a Team in Microsoft Teams for everyday documents and files. SharePoint integrates with Office 365 including Teams, Microsoft Word and Outlook. It is also free, offers generous storage space and you can use it when working remotely. You must ensure that you have set up permissions correctly so that your files are only accessed by the right people. SharePoint is suitable for high impact (level 2) data.
If you regularly need to share documents with people who don’t work at the University, then the University’s Google Drive might be more suitable. This is because it’s easier to share links to documents with external users.
Find out more about storage options for teams and groups
Researchers who want to store research data
UIS's research data storage services offer competitively priced alternatives to storage on local platforms, which can be costly to introduce and maintain. These services also offer secure alternatives to storage on external drives, where data could be lost, stolen or corrupted.
Find out more about storage options for researchers
Institutions or departments that want to offer more storage to users connected to the Cambridge University Data Network (CUDN)
UIS’s Institutional File Store is a service for departments to store and share everyday documents with colleagues. It’s aimed at desktop and laptop users who work onsite and will have access to the storage via a mapped drive on their computer. It's easy to manage and add more storage using the Self Service Gateway. It also offers automated backups and snapshots stored on a different site.
Find out more about offering storage to servers using Institutional File Store
Institutions or departments that want to keep an offsite copy of their data
UIS’s Institutional File Store allows you to store data safely on an industry-standard hardware platform in the University’s central data centres. This will protect you against data loss. The snapshot feature allows users to restore previous versions of files. This assists with recovering files after accidental deletion.
Find out more about storing offsite data on the Institutional File Store
Institutions or departments that want to store large volumes of data in the cloud
UIS offers several public cloud storage solutions. This type of storage is aimed at institutions with large volumes of data, particularly data that needs to be backed up. You will need in-house technical skills and time to invest in training to manage IaaS storage.