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Don’t Put Stanford in a Box

Google Drive is the preferred storage solution
Tuesday, February 16, 2021

University IT (UIT) is advancing its efforts to reduce Stanford Box usage across the university, and encouraging our community to adopt Google Drive, the preferred storage solution, or Microsoft OneDrive, another supported storage alternative.

Note: This project does not currently include Medicine Box content. There will be no changes to Medicine Box at this time. Stanford Medicine has a parallel project underway, and UIT is working with their project team to align our efforts.

Shrinking the Box

The three-year effort to decrease the use of Box stems from heightened costs associated with the cloud storage service.

Though individual Stanford Box accounts can still be created, please note that Stanford Box accounts for workgroups are no longer offered. If you’re in need of a shared account, you can use Google Groups for workgroups, which allows you to manage access to Google Shared drives using Workgroup Manager.

Driving a new future with Google

With the use of Box dwindling, it’s important to start taking action now. UIT advises creating and saving all new projects within an alternative cloud storage service.

The UIT preferred solution for cloud storage is Google Drive for a number of reasons. The file storage and synchronization service offers:

  • Safe and secure file storage for Low, Moderate and High-Risk Data (PHI requires Cardinal Key and IT assistance to configure).
  • Currently includes unlimited free storage space up to 750 GB of data per day
  • Quick and simple collaboration with Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms and Drawings
  • Built-in sync capability to access documents on any of your devices

Get help

To get started with UIT’s preferred storage solution, visit the Google Drive service page.

If you have any questions about the Box transition, please submit a Help request.

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