The University of Michigan will migrate its cloud-data storage from U-M Box to U-M Dropbox beginning this spring, Ravi Pendse, vice president for information technology and chief information officer, told faculty and staff in an email March 12.
U-M Box, the university’s primary cloud-data storage option, will go away Dec. 1. Information and Technology Services launched U-M Dropbox last summer with the goal of replacing U-M Box this year.
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Faculty and staff will migrate to U-M Dropbox on a rolling basis, based on their unit. The process is expected to start for some in the spring term, and for others it will likely extend into the summer.
A promotional campaign is encouraging university community members to prepare for the migration by taking the following steps:
- Create a U-M Dropbox account if they don’t already have one.
- Clean up their U-M Box account by deleting unnecessary files and folders.
- Wait to hear from their unit’s representative — Unit Ambassador — about the self-service migration tool before attempting to move any files or folders.
Multiple stakeholders from across the university worked with ITS since fall to develop the plan for migrating data stored in Box. Unit Ambassadors are collaborating with ITS and making certain that departments and individuals have the information and support they need during the transition period.
Information about the migration is available on the U-M Box Retirement website. Individuals should direct questions to their Unit Ambassador or contact the Box-to-Dropbox project team at Box-Retirement-Project-owners@umich.edu.
