Google Sunset

Transitioning from Google to OneDrive and Teams

To simplify campus storage options, provide better institutional support, and better align with State/SUNY information security mandates and insurance industry requirements, CNS will sunset support for many cloud storage solutions on campus, including the ESF Google ecosystem, on January 2, 2024.

  • ESF is working to transition away from the enterprise Google apps for education. The two main reasons are:
    • In recent years Google has changed their business model to start charging schools for its use. Even SU is starting to limit the extent to which users can access their google apps for education instance.
    • Providing expert and quality support for multiple cloud storage and collaboration tools including securing them to the standards we are required by SUNY, is not feasible at an institution of our size.
  • CNS is striving to provide better support and security to campus with the resources available. Better support means faster response times, better experience when interacting with CNS staff, and making sure that ESF data and devices are secure.  Reducing the number of enterprise applications and softwares that have the same functionality is paramount. Many other SUNYs are also only supporting one cloud file storage/collabortion tool. Some of those SUNYs are:
    • Upstate Medical University
    • College of Optometry
    • SUNY Brockport
    • SUNY Maritime
    • Alfred University
  • Microsoft OneDrive, Teams, and SharePoint all have similar functionalities to Google Drive and it is why it’s our recommended platform. Some of those features are:
    • Ability to collaborate with others outside of ESF. This is going to be even easier as all schools have the ability to login to a Microsoft account but not all have the ability to login to a google account.
    • Versioning so you can recover past version and prevent overwriting
    • Ability to self-manage who has access to your files, what type of access and for how long
    • Ability to have fully encrypted files, at rest and in transit
    • Up to 25 TB storage per user
  • Account compromises at ESF in 2022 all were from google drive or dropbox file share notifications
  • There is no plan, now or in the future, to block any legitimate web sites on Evergreen or the wired network. You will still be able to access any site, including dropbox, personal google, etc on your personal and ESF-issued devices via Web browsers.
  • Like installing other software, the desktop applications for syncing data with cloud storage services other than Microsoft OneDrive will be blocked from installation on ESF-issued devices unless you have admin credentials. As noted above, you will still be able to use these applications through a web browser.

How We Are Helping

  • Over the next calendar year, CNS will offer sessions for people to learn about the tools, ask questions, and start transitioning their files.
  • Currently, only the spring sessions are scheduled but there will be more.
  • There is a software training site available that is currently focused on Teams and OneDrive. It also contains information about the sessions we are offering. The site can be found at https://esf0.sharepoint.com/sites/SoftwareTraining  
  • The first part of these sessions will be recorded and posted for anyone to review at a later date.
  • We will either travel to or host more seminar style Teams sessions for remote employees.
  • As the year progresses and we get feedback from campus we will continue to update resources available on this site
  • We have tools available to assist people and departments with gigabytes and terabytes of data. Please just reach out helpdesk@esf.edu.

Resources