IT Project: Box Transition
Project Background
Northwestern Box is a cloud-based file sharing solution that has been centrally provided by the University since 2014. As the result of a recent shift in pricing at Box and as a substantial cost-saving strategy, Northwestern plans to migrate its data outside of Box to Microsoft OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams by the conclusion of the Box annual contract on August 31, 2022.
Through contracts the University has in place with Microsoft, Northwestern students, faculty, staff have access to a broad range of Microsoft Office 365 applications and add-ins.
Goals and Objectives
- Develop comprehensive strategies to manage University data.
- Gain in-depth analysis of the Box file structures, sharing, and standard user practices to provide a guided approach to data storage across the University in the new environment.
- Apply right-sized solution(s)—OneDrive, SharePoint, and others—and manage the University’s active and inactive users and their data in the appropriate systems.
- Provide an adequate replacement for SAFER. This application interacts with Box to offer a more secure process for managing permissions to folders that contain sensitive data.
- Provide comprehensive training and support documentation to assist the University community in making the transition.
- Ensure that all files are migrated from Box by August 31, 2022.
Approach
The project was achieved in a phased approach from June 2020 through August 2022.
Discovery: June – August 2020
Northwestern IT partners with Weinberg College, Kellogg School of Management, Feinberg School of Medicine, and other key stakeholders, to:
- gather security requirements (SAFER)
- investigate and decide on an integration tool
- determine a path for data migration from Box to Microsoft OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams, including a custom migration path to the Research Storage Data Service (RDSS) and FSMRESFiLES for key data owners with large file shares.
During this phase, the appropriate governance committees and working groups necessary to steer the completion of the deliverables are established. Project documentation, including a communications plan, is developed.
Preliminary Building: September 2020—February 2021
Configuration requirements are identified, and testing is conducted in a sandbox environment. Custom migrations for large data files begin. Documentation is created based on testing outcomes. Project documentation, including a communications plan, is finalized.
Pilot and Stakeholder Feedback: March—November 2021
Pilot group migrations, training materials vetted, survey feedback gathered. School migration schedule developed with input from Migration Leaders and Technology Leaders. Offer users a window for data clean-up.
Deployment: November 2021—June 2022
Conduct data migration to Microsoft solution and allow “read-only” files in Box. Training documentation distributed to the user community through various communications channels. Offer users a window for data clean-up.
Completion: June—August 2022
The transition of Box files is complete. Northwestern IT reserves this time to ensure that all Box content has been successfully migrated before Box is retired on August 31, 2022.
Timeline
Project phases and target dates.
|
Phase
|
Target Date
|
Status
|
| Discovery |
June—August 2021 |
Complete |
| Building |
September 2020—February 2021 |
Complete |
| Pilot and Feedback |
March—November 2021 |
Complete |
| Deployment |
November 2021—June 2022 |
Complete |
| Completion |
June—August 2022 |
Complete |
Project Oversight
Project roles.
|
Project Role
|
Name
|
|
Project Sponsor
|
David Carr
Associate Vice President, Cyberinfrastructure, Northwestern IT
|
|
Project Manager
|
James Montague
Northwestern IT
|
|
Leadership Team Member
|
Betsy Faxon
Northwestern IT
Curtis Hanawalt
Director, IT Customer Support, Feinberg School of Medicine
David Carr
Associate Vice President, Cyberinfrastructure, Northwestern IT
Joseph Kurtin
Northwestern IT
Mike Satut
Senior Director of Information Technology, Weinberg College
Scott Pitts
Associate Vice President, Cyberinfrastructure, Northwestern IT
Steve Christensen
Associate Director, IT Communications, Northwestern IT
|
|
Working Group Lead
|
Blake Wehlage
Northwestern IT
James Montague
Northwestern IT
Stuart Nelsen
Northwestern IT
|
|
Communications
|
Christine Ganjani
Northwestern IT
|