For information on research storage, please visit the Research Support page.
DoIT provides multiple storage offerings. While generous, storage is not unlimited and may require management as capacity needs grow. Usage guidelines may vary depending on organizational needs.
- Google – Google storage is available for all faculty, staff, and students. This storage is backed up for disaster by Google but there is no recovery from the inadvertent deletion of a file. The storage in Google is validated to support risk level 1 data — non-public data and data subject to FERPA. Shared Drives can be utilized to support shared documents within a group or department.
- Box – Box is a web-based file storage system available to the UMBC community. The storage is backed up for disaster and encrypted at rest but there is no recovery from the inadvertent deletion of a file. The storage in Box is validated to support risk level 2 data — data that may include SSN but not credit card or health care information. Box can be set up to support shared folders within a group or department. Box provides a Box Sync tool that can be used to keep some or all of your Box data synced with your computer; please note that you may not sync level 2 data (data containing SSNs) with your computer.
- Microsoft OneDrive – Microsoft OneDrive is available to faculty, staff, and students. This storage is backed up for disaster by Microsoft but there is no recovery from the inadvertent deletion of a file. The storage in Google is validated to support risk level 1, 2, and 3 data. Level 2 data is data that may include SSN but not credit card or health care information. While our agreement with OneDrive allows for Level 3 – health care, or HIPAA-protected data – to be stored in this environment, this should not be done without a discussion with DoIT to ensure other policies are being followed for this level of data.
- Active Directory (AD) – The Active Directory system is designed to be a high-availability system with servers and storage in two separate data centers. The storage can be tightly integrated with Microsoft Windows (and Macintosh with special software). The storage in AD is validated to support risk level 1 data (no SSN’s allowed). Data is backed up and the backups do support recovery of individual files that may be deleted, subject to the backup-retention cycle (usually 30 days).
- AFS – the AFS data service is available to all Unix-based workstations and clients exist for windows and Mac. AFS is used extensively on campus in support of the GL interactive Linux servers, HPCF, and some campus web servers. AFS is validated to operate on risk level 1 data and backups do support recovery of individual files that may be deleted, subject to the backup-retention cycle (usually 30 days).
Many departments or faculty that must maintain their own servers for projects can utilize DoIT’s virtual machine cluster. This service provides redundant servers and storage for business continuity and high availability. All of this storage is protected by our backup service. DoIT’s data protection service is hosted by EMC’s Networker enterprise backup and archive software suite that provides data protection for standard files and applications on many leading operating platforms, including Linux, Solaris, Windows, Netware, and OS X. When backing up using DoIT’s central service, protected data is backed up incrementally every night with full backups occurring weekly.