What do you do when you realize that you have run out of file storage space and need more? Well, at UMass Boston you don’t even have to worry about it because of the recent adoption of Microsoft OneDrive, which provides up to a terabyte (TB) of storage in the cloud. This is enough to store 200,000 5-minute songs, 310,000 pictures, or 500 hours’ worth of movies! That’s a lot of file storage, all readily available via a web browser from any device, at any time, from any place. And, making OneDrive even better is that it is always safe, secure, and compliant with state, federal, and higher education regulations.

A collaborative effort was needed to bring Microsoft OneDrive across campus at UMass Boston.

Linda Modiste, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Application Services

For UMass Boston’s IT division, the decision to adopt Microsoft OneDrive as the university’s file storage and sharing system was among the easiest ones to make. Data saved into the “cloud” in OneDrive makes sense in today’s day and age where access to data is paramount 24/7/365. But that doesn’t mean transitioning all the university’s relevant data to Microsoft OneDrive was a walk in the park.

A steep uphill climb is more like it.

According to Linda Modiste, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Application Services, Database Administrator Bhavesh Shah was very busy through the summer helping people migrate their data over to Microsoft OneDrive. Bhavesh did most of the heavy lifting on this project but had a lot of help as well, especially from Marla Filoso and Jamil Moosavifard from the IT Systems department. A collaborative effort was needed to bring Microsoft OneDrive across campus at UMass Boston.

Tremendous progress was made through 2022 implementing Microsoft OneDrive with the final phase of the project focused on transitioning an end-of-life on-premises storage platform to Microsoft OneDrive or suitable storage solution. “We had 12-15 departments that needed to be migrated, but Bhavesh has done the job. Right now we’re about 95% complete. We have one more set of file shares to move off of our end-of-life on-premises storage platform and then we’ll be done. Once that’s done, then everyone will be on OneDrive or a similar cloud storage platform,” Modiste was happy to say.

There was also a bit of salesmanship involved in this project.

“Some of the departments were relatively easy, but many of them were a little bit more complex,” Modiste explained. “It was not entirely agreeable that everyone wanted to go to OneDrive.” Time had to be spent on educating people as to the many advantages of OneDrive, but ultimately, as Modiste added, “They’re all pretty happy with the solution.” Also happy with the migration is Technology Training Specialist Katherine Ananis, who has kept very busy leading regular OneDrive workshops and training staff on all there is to know about it.

By the time this is being read the Microsoft OneDrive transition will be complete and staff across UMass Boston will hopefully appreciate how easily and securely OneDrive stores their data. However, as they do, they should pause for a moment to appreciate the hard work and dedication of Bhavesh Shah, Linda Modiste, and those who supported them for bringing Microsoft OneDrive—cloud storage for all—to UMass Boston for students, faculty, and staff alike.