Information for Departments

• Departments will receive 25 GB Microsoft storage for each A5 license, to be provided as baseline storage to A5-licensed employees.
• Departments will receive 75 GB Microsoft storage per A5 license purchased as pooled storage. In cases where employees split their time between two or more departments, storage assignments will be provided to the primary department based on Banner data. 
• From this pooled storage, departments must provide a minimum of 5 GB storage to each employee who has an A1 license and to sponsored accounts.
• Departments may distribute the remainder of this pooled storage as needed, either
  • to support Microsoft SharePoint Online or Teams sites or Groups they manage, or 
  • to increase storage allocations for individual employees within their department.
• Departments will be able to purchase additional storage in the Microsoft environment; purchase increments are yet to be determined.

• Departmental approval is required for employees to create new SharePoint Online or Teams sites or Groups. Requests should be submitted through the designated IT Service Catalog item.
• Students, alumni, and retirees may no longer create SharePoint Online or Teams sites or Groups, but may be added as members by an owner. 
• Departments will need to sponsor SharePoint or Teams sites by making sure at least one employee in the department has the owner role on each site — a minimum of two is preferred.
• Departments may add students to SharePoint or Teams sites or Groups, as long as there is at least one faculty or staff member in the owner role.
  
• Unclaimed SharePoint sites, Teams sites, and Groups (i.e., where there is no departmental sponsorship) will be deleted starting July 14, 2025.

Departments will need to decide how use their allotted storage, as well as how to manage the creation of SharePoint sites or Teams within their department.

We suggest that departments take the following steps to assess their storage and develop a strategy best suited to their needs: 

• Schedule a meeting with your employees and departmental units to discuss your plans for storage usage going forward.
  
• Work with your IT personnel and use MyCAT to determine if you have an organizational unit (OU) within the Hokies Active Directory (AD) for your department. If you do not, it is important that you create your OU as soon as possible. Use this request to get the process started. You will need to provide departmental approval for this request.
• Work with your OU administrator to:
  • Ensure that membership is current and correct within your OU
  • Get a sense of your department’s current storage usage through CAT: 
    • One Drive reports are updated nightly
    • Shared spaces reports are updated weekly
  • Use CAT to identify your shared spaces and indicate what you intend to do with them as part of the Microsoft changes. 
  • Plan out the usage of your department’s storage allocation.