Data Collection, Storage and Collaboration Tools

Data collection, storage and collaboration tools are used to maintain departmental/team/group, and individual information and resources. These tools can be used as a respository for files, projects, processes and solutions for Western faculty, staff and, in some cases, students.

Western Technology Services supports the following data collection, storage and collaboration tools for general use on campus:

Confluence
Microsoft Teams
Microsoft OneDrive
Qualtrics
Microsoft Forms
WTS Central File Storage (formerly called Walter)
Laserfiche

In addition to the above WTS supported tools, the following storage options are also available on campus and may be applicable for research data:

Western Libraries Secure Data Archive
- for Long-term data archival and retention
Western University Repository on Borealis
- Online repository for storage and sharing of non-confidential research data

Data Security

Storage of sensitive and confidential data in the cloud is acceptable and protected by our existing licensing agreements; however you need to be aware that local synced copies of your data do not meet Western's data classification standard or data handling procedures for sensitive and confidential information.

Sensitive or confidential data in Microsoft Office 365 needs to be protected from being locally synced as you work across different computers at home or in the office. Laptops and workstations that are using Microsoft Office 365 and syncing data locally, must use a Western login to access the laptop or workstation and the local drive where sync folders are created must be hard drive encrypted. More information about securing your data in OneDrive can be found at https://wts.uwo.ca/microsoft_onedrive/securing_data.html .

Common Use Cases

In order to help you make an informed choice on which tool to use for your specific use case, we have provided an overview and feature comparison table. While some core functionality is the same, each tool has different feature sets and constraints which should be considered during your evaluation. We have also included some common use cases that you may want to consult as you conduct your tool evaluation.

Tool Comparison Table

Disclaimer : U se of the following tools is optional. All usage must comply with Western's Computing, Technology & Information Resources Policy and Data Classification Standards .

The following table compares Western's centrally supported data storage and collaboration tools.
Feature	Microsoft Teams	Microsoft OneDrive	Confluence	Qualtrics	Microsoft Forms	WTS Central File Storage (formerly Walter)	Laserfiche
Eligible Users	Faculty Staff Students	Faculty Staff Students	Faculty Staff Students ⁴	Faculty Staff Students	Faculty Staff Students	Faculty Staff	Faculty¹⁰ Staff¹⁰
Cost	No cost (included with most Office 365 access)	No cost (included with most Office 365 access)	$15/month ¹	No cost	No cost (included with most Office 365 access)	Internal: $15/month Affiliate: $30/month	Certain features have costs¹¹
File storage limits	25TB ⁷ No option to increase	1TB ⁷ No option to increase	2GB No option to increase	No storage limit	based on whether files are stored in Teams or OneDrive ⁵	250GB ⁸	No storage limit
External/Guest access availability	Yes	Yes	No	No ³	Yes ⁶	No	No
Access Options	Desktop app Web browser Mobile app	Desktop app Web browser Mobile app	Web browser Mobile app	Web browser	Desktop app Web browser Mobile app	Mapped network drive ⁹	Desktop app Web browser
File/Content Ownership	Shared	Individual ²	Shared	Shared	based on whether files are stored in Teams or OneDrive ⁵	Shared	Shared
Permission Controls	Yes (by Microsoft 365 Groups or individual Western ID)	Yes (by Microsoft 365 Groups or individual Western ID)	Yes (by individual Western ID)	Yes (by individual Western ID)	Yes (by Microsoft 365 Groups or individual Western ID)	Yes (by Active Directory groups and permissions)	Yes (managed by repository administrator)
File Submissions	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes ⁶	Yes	Yes¹²
Questionnaires	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No
Communications Options	Group chat Direct messaging Virtual meetings	No communication options	Comments on pages Email notifications	Email notifications	No communication options	No communication options	Workflow controlled email In application notifications
Security Features	MFA File Encryption	MFA File Encryption	File Encryption	MFA File Encryption	MFA File Encryption	Password protected	Repository encryption (DOD certified)

Footnotes

Confluence is priced at $15 per Confluence space per month. More details are available on our Confluence web page.
OneDrive content is owned by an individual Western Identity (account). When the owner of that account is no longer at Western, the content will become unavailable and be deleted.
External/Guest access is not available for the creation of surveys in Qualtrics but surveys can be completed by anyone.
Students are not eligible to request the creation of a Confluence space or own a space but they can be granted access to use a space owned by a Western faculty or staff member.
If files or content is stored in Teams it is shared ownership and subject to Teams storage limits. If files or content is stored in OneDrive it is individual ownership and subject to OneDrive storage limits and access policies.
Forms file submissions are only available to users with a Western identity/account.
Please note that these Microsoft storage limits are changing. Please review the information provided on our Office 365 Storage quota page.
Disk will be allocated in 250GB increments.
External access requires WROAMS (VPN) connection.
Departments or faculty admin units are able to request creation of a repository which requires them to provide details of the use case. Once granted they then grant access to staff/faculty.
Certain features require the unit to acquire feature licensing, compatible scanner hardware if not using Toshiba MFD.
File submissions are controlled by the process managed by repository administrator.

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