Cloud Storage is On the Move—Time to Pack Up
Posted Date: May 4, 2021
Effective Date: May 4, 2021
When planning a move, no matter how far in advance, it is never too soon to get organized. As previously announced, Northwestern is moving from Box, the University’s cloud-based data and file storage service, to Microsoft cloud-storage platforms—OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams—by August 2022. Although this service change may seem far off, the first migrations will begin in October 2021.
Navigating the Move
To prepare you, Northwestern IT launched Box Migration Overview resource pages to provide information on the various project phases, including what you can do now (Packing Up), what you can expect during the move (Moving On), and what to do once you are migrated (Moving In). As you review the pages, be sure to check out the Microsoft support resources, including video tutorials that will acquaint you with your new file-storage surroundings. Information on the site will update as the project progresses and more information is available.
When is Move-In?
Northwestern IT is partnering with schools and units across campus to confirm the migration plan, scheduled to kick-off in October. A migration schedule will be available online in the coming months. Please know when your migration window is established, you will be notified well in advance and receive multiple email notifications informing you of your migration date, what you need to do to prepare, and what support options are available.
About the Box Transition Project
As a reminder, we are undertaking this work due to Box’s significant price increase and because students, faculty, and staff already have access to a broad range of Microsoft Office 365 applications and add-ins that offer many of the features available on Box. Northwestern plans to migrate all of its data away from Box to Microsoft OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams by the conclusion of the Box annual contract on August 31, 2022.
We will continue to communicate about this migration in the coming months. If you have questions about this project, please contact your school or unit’s technology leader or email your question to Collaboration Services at collab@northwestern.edu.