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IT Services

File Sharing - SharePoint and OneDrive

SharePoint and OneDrive for Business

A web-based collaboration and storage space. Used to create, edit and share content between colleagues. Ideal for collaborating on upcoming projects or as a location to document operational tasks.

  • Content accessible anywhere online.
  • Upload existing documents or create new documents directly within your library using the Office Online suite.
  • Edit documents at the same time using co-authoring.
  • Generate lists of data with customisable views and columns.
  • Share documents with colleagues outside of Queen Mary
Self-help Guides FAQs
Sharepoint & OneDrive  SharePoint, OneDrive

Audience: Students, Staff

Service Name: File Sharing

Alias: SharePoint, OneDrive

Key Users: Students, Staff

Requirements: Users of the service must be current students or staff

Requesting the service: The service is automatically available to current students and staff

Support Contact: IT Service Desk, Live Chat, Raise a Ticket, Call 020 7882 8888

Feedback: email its-feedback@qmul.ac.uk

Documentation: 

Status: Current service

Cost: Free to end users

Business Owner: IT Services Assistant Director, Platforms & Service Delivery

Technical Owner: IT Services, Infrastructure Software 

Related Services: Microsoft 365

Service Level Category: GOLD

Your general purpose file storage options

Features of digital workplace storage tools

 

 

What is OneDrive for Business?

OneDrive is Microsoft’s cloud-based file hosting service and it’s provided by default to all Queen Mary University of London students and staff.

Your University OneDrive file store is a OneDrive for Business account, so you will get 1TB of storage space by default. It gives you a simple way to store, sync and share all kinds of files with all your devices, and is also accessible via the web.

 

OneDrive is private by default, however it is possible to share files with other people. This is best suited for sharing with one or two people. If you wish to share with a wider audience, Teams or a SharePoint site is a more appropriate option.

 

Upon leaving the organisation, your OneDrive will be deleted according to the retention policy. For this reason, it is best not place document on your OneDrive which are intended for long-term group sharing.

 

Further information on the OneDrive can be found here: https://www.its.qmul.ac.uk/support/faqs/#Onedrive

 

What is SharePoint Online?

SharePoint Online is a collection of cloud and web-based technologies that makes it easy for groups to create, share and collaborate more effectively. The University’s SharePoint Online can be used to:

  • Publish web pages (to share with anyone who has a University account)
  • Share and sync files
  • Work together on documents at the same time
  • Assign tasks and automate reminders
  • Track deliverables
  • Access files from anywhere with an internet connection
  • Invite any user with a University account to collaborate
  • Invite an external user to collaborate
  • Work on mobile devices

 

What is Microsoft Teams?

Microsoft Teams is the University’s recommended and supported online collaboration tool. Teams is integrated with other Microsoft 365 (formerly known as Office 365) products. It brings together everything you need to collaborate with groups of colleagues in one online workspace. As a conduit between OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online, you can leverage its features Inc. Calendar, Chat (IM) and Voice and Video Calls/Meetings to share information and documents.

Typical Document Workflow

 

Information Classification

Information Classification helps protect Queen Mary’s data. This is of critical importance in preventing a data breach. It helps us to comply with various regulations such as GDPR and will help to protect our information from unauthorised users.

The University’s digital workplace tools (OneDrive for Business, MS Teams and SharePoint Online) are suitable for the storage of files classified up to and including Confidential level.  For the storage of Highly Confidential files, please review the Special purpose file storage section below, or contact ITS Service Desk for further advice or your FRM (See below)

Data classification of the highest 2 levels:

Category

Description

Control Measures

Example*

Highly Confidential

 

(Unsuitable for OneDrive, MS Teams or SharePoint)

Unauthorised disclosure (even within Queen Mary) or loss would cause extreme harm to the interests of Queen Mary or individuals, up to and including loss of life.

  • Contact IT Services for specialist advice; minimum controls should be as for Confidential
  • Access restricted to staff requiring it for performance of their duties. The integrity of the data needs to be guaranteed

  • Security system procedures and architectures
  • Information identifying individuals whose lives may be put at risk as a result
  • Sensitive patient-identifiable data, whether obtained from NHS systems, generated
  • Physical and digital documents labelled “Queen Mary University of London Highly Confidential”

Confidential

Unauthorised disclosure (even within Queen Mary) or loss would cause extreme harm to the interests of Queen Mary or individuals.

  • Stored and transmitted in encrypted form
  • Access restricted to staff requiring it for performance of their duties. The integrity of the data needs to be guaranteed
  • Physical and digital documents labelled “Queen Mary University of London Highly Confidential”
  • Same as above
  • Patient identifiable data or other special category personal data
  • Commercially exploitable research
  • Passwords and PINs
  • System credentials
  • Government issued identifiers (e.g. NI number, passport number, drivers licence)
  • Individually identifiable financial account information e.g. bank account, credit or debit card

It is the user’s responsibility to set the appropriate sharing permissions for confidential data e.g. restrict access to only those who should have it.

For full guidance on the classification of data (including other lower classifications) please do take time to review Queen Mary‘s policy by clicking on this link:

DG09 Information Classification [PDF 391KB]

 

It is inadvisable to store any documents on the following locations

However, confidential documents absolutely must not be stored on:

  • Laptop hard drives
  • Desktop hard drives
  • On your windows “desktop”
  • Mobile devices e.g. Phone, tablet etc.
  • Removable hard drives
  • Please do not purchase/deploy consumer storage products for QM use (Dropbox, iCloud, GoogleDocs, NAS boxes, external hard drives etc.)

*If you have collaboration requirements with other organisations, please contact IT Services  

 

Legacy Storage Options

Queen Mary University of London continues to provide the following “legacy” storage options:

  • G: drive where all staff and students have access to a secure, personal file store from any managed machine or using the AppsAnywhere remote access service
  • J: drive (Staff) where all departments have a dedicated departmental shared drive for the storage of shared documents and is available on managed staff desktop and laptop computers
  • J Drive (Students) where all teaching service machines (i.e., those in the library, laboratories or lecture theatres) have a J: drive for the storage and sharing of teaching materials
  • G: drive will be retired by the end of 2021 and your data will be relocated to OneDrive for Business, which is our digital workplace tool for the storage of work and study related files. Queen Mary University of London encourages you to use OneDrive for Business.

Further information including OneDrive guide and quick links to video training, help and learning is available through: https://www.its.qmul.ac.uk/support/digital-workplace/onedrive-guide/

 

  • J: drive (Staff) will be retired by the end of 2021 and staff data will be relocated to SharePoint Online, which is our digital workplace tool for the storage of departmental or group owned files. Queen Mary University of London encourages you to use SharePoint Online

Further information on the G: & J: drive relocations to OneDrive and SharePoint can be found here: https://www.its.qmul.ac.uk/projectsandchange/msrp/

 

How to request

Service

Cost

Request Process

Self-Service Migration

OneDrive for Business

Free

Available by default. No request needed

 

SharePoint Online

Free

Self-service from within SharePoint Online

 

MS Teams

Free

Self-service from within MS Teams

 

G: drive

Free

Available by default. No request needed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmlDM9yl5hk

J: drive

Free

New J: drives not available. Please use SharePoint.

Please contact IT Services for support

 

How to access 

OneDrive for Business, MS Teams & SharePoint Online: all users, by default, have access to these services, so there is no need to request. You may access both by using your QM account to log into https://office.com and selecting either OneDrive, MS Teams or SharePoint from the menu. More detailed instructions can be found here: https://www.its.qmul.ac.uk/support/digital-workplace/how-to-access-services/

IT Service Desk:

Telephone:                  +44 (0)20 7882 8888

Email:                         servicedesk@qmul.ac.uk
Self-service:                Service Desk

Service Desk chat:      https://www.its.qmul.ac.uk/

Faculty Relationship Managers:

Email:                       its-frms@qmul.ac.uk

 

Special purpose file storage options

Service

Purpose

Further Information

Research Project or Lab Storage

The QMUL HPC cluster provides 1TB of free shared storage space per project, with additional capacity available to purchase if required.

https://docs.hpc.qmul.ac.uk/storage/

 

Electronic Engineering and Computer Science

A variety of additional storage options are available to meet the specialist requirements of the school.

http://support.eecs.qmul.ac.uk/facilities/fileservers/

School of Physics and Astronomy

A variety of additional storage options are available to meet the specialist requirements of the school.

Please contact your local IT support team for details of the storage options available to you

SMD Safehaven

QMUL have several clinical trials groups that retain sensitive patient-identifiable data, whether obtained from NHS systems, generated internally or imported from elsewhere. To hold NHS or ONS data, these groups must hold the data on infrastructure that has a proven level of data security and suitable information governance and processes in place. These are known as data safe havens and are subject to an annual evaluation of compliance with a standard.

https://safehaven.bcc.qmul.ac.uk/

 

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