Storage - General Information About Available Storage Types and How They Should be Used

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Overview

This article explains the differences of the common document storage options for the MSU Community. It discusses Network storage, OneDrive storage, SharePoint, and Teams storage. It also has a link to a document that provides guidance on what types of data can be stored in different types of storage.

A good video to watch that compares OneDrive vs SharePoint vs Teams is available at Which tool when for files: SharePoint, OneDrive, or Microsoft Teams - YouTube (link).

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Guidance on Data Storage Usage by Type of Data

MSU has information about the storage types available on tech.msu.edu (link). Linked from that page is a tool set up to help guide the decision making process - Finder | MSU Data Storage Finder (link, login required).

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Mapped Network Drive (Elastic Storage)

Network storage or file share is a mapped network drive that is located on redundant storage in the MSU Data Center. 

This storage solution can be used for:

  • Teams related Standard Office Documents
  • Video storage
  • Image storage
  • Small Access Database
  • Specialized access to Volumes and Folders to specific individuals or security groups

This storage solutions should not be used for:

  • High transaction – No SQL databases

Storage Limits:

  • Sold in 1 TB units

Access:

  • Specialized access to Volumes and Folders to specific individuals or security groups

Cost:

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OneDrive Storage (Spartan Drive)

Your personal OneDrive is the place to store the documents that you create and control. 

This storage solution can be used for:

  • All MS Office documents
  • Videos
  • Pictures

Storage Limits:

  • 5 TB per user

Access:

  • You can share Spartan Drive folders or files with anyone including guest users via an email address.

Cost

  • Centrally subsidized so no charge to individuals or departments

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SharePoint Storage (Spartan Storage)

SharePoint Communication sites can be synchronized with your OneDrive software. This storage should be used for Departmental wide documents such as:

  • MS Office Documents
  • Long term storage of your Team or Department related documents

This storage should not be used for:

  • Video

Storage Limits:

  • 1 TB per site. Up to 25TB

Cost

  • Centrally subsidized so no charge to individuals or departments

Access

  • Access to documents in site is managed by the owners of SharePoint site and is generally provided using Active Directory groups to both members and visitors.

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Teams Storage

Teams are the working hub for collaborating and co-authoring with team members. These are the types of documents to store in Teams:

  • Short term working MS Office documents
  • Documents with multiple authors and editors

Storage Limits:

  • 1 TB per Team. Up to 25TB

Cost

  • Centrally subsidized so no charge to individuals or departments

Access:

  • Access to all documents in team is available to both team owners and all team members. Generally no segmentation of permissions for separate folders for individual team members.

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Related Services / Offerings (3)

Elastic Storage
Elastic Storage is a storage space created by MSU IT that provides users the ability to save, access and share files among designated users.
Enterprise Storage
Spartan 365
Spartan Mail and related Spartan 365 software, including applications located at https://spartan365.msu.edu and downloaded Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook), are provided to students while they attend the university and to faculty and staff members while they are employed by the university.