Storage & Backup

Whether you are a student or a member of the staff or faculty, many Smith community members produce files and documents as part of their day to day work. File storage is available from Google Drive and, for faculty and staff, Smith Network Drives.

Google Drive is Smith’s recommended location for storing and accessing most administrative and collaborative work, including documents, spreadsheets, and PDFs.

Backups

Files in Google Drive associated with your Smith account are backed up regularly and securely stored.

Faculty and Staff: While Smith ITS currently backs up files in existing network shared drives and individual home drives (S: and H: drives), we strongly recommend migrating existing work from these drive areas to Google Drive for secure cloud storage that is regularly backed up.

NOTE: Smith ITS does not back up local files on Smith-assigned computers or personal devices connected to the Smith network. Storing your files in one of the supported areas listed on this page ensures your files are still accessible if a computer hardware failure should occur.

Storage Comparison - Employee Options

Differences between storing your team’s work in a shared network drive folder (S: drive) versus in a Google Drive area are summarized in the following table.
A Google Drive Shared drive is comparable in purpose to an S: drive folder with the following differences:

FAQ

My team currently uses an S: drive to store all of our work. Do we have to move it all to Google Drive?

While we encourage your team to consider moving your work to Google Drive, we are not requiring it at this time. If you would like to discuss how to plan for such a move, please email ithelp@smith.edu.

My team uses an S: drive because we know it's secure and backed up by the college. We were told the college does not back up Google files. Is that accurate?

ITS backs up files stored in Google Drive that are owned and created by Smith users, whether in an individual’s My Drive or in a Shared Drive.

I have a lot of attachments in my email, as well as many of things I’ve downloaded and stored on my computer. When I need them, I look there. Do I need to move them to Google Drive?

ITS does not recommend storing files in your email or on your computer’s hard drive, primarily for security reasons.

What types of documents and files can be stored in Google Drive? I work with many different types of materials and data.

Files and documents most Smith employees work with daily, such as written documentation, spreadsheets, and PDFs, can be stored in Google Drive. Data and information that is normally managed and stored in other systems, such as Workday or Salesforce, large research data files, personal health information, and video files, are not included. If you would like to discuss best practices for storing these or other materials, please email ithelp@smith.edu to request a consultation.

How secure is Google Drive? My team works with sensitive data.

Google Drive is secure and can be used to store most data except Protected Health Information (PHI).

I have particular/special storage needs that I don’t think can be accomplished within Google Drive. What should I do?

Please email ithelp@smith.edu and include the information about your special requirements and needs. We’ll be happy to help.

Is there a limit to what I can store in Google Drive?

There is currently no storage limit for Google Drive. However, ITS strongly recommends following best practices for regularly organizing important files and purging unnecessary ones. Doing so will make adhering to potential future storage limits much easier.

Is there a limit to what I can store on a network drive?

Home H: drives have a 2 TB quota limit; Shared S: drives have an 8 TB quota limit.

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