Information and Technology Services is working closely with Box Retirement Unit Ambassadors to empower faculty, staff, and students to migrate their data from U-M Box to U-M Dropbox before December 1, 2021. Unit Ambassadors are collaborating with the Box Retirement Project team to ensure the university’s needs are met, and serving as a point of contact between ITS, Unit IT, and end users.
Phase One
As part of the migration plan, ITS will be making available a self-service tool that allows end users to migrate their data at a time convenient to them. The complete migration out of U-M Box will be accomplished through a phased rollout, beginning with a university-wide campaign that started in March 2021 to encourage faculty, staff, and students to create a U-M Dropbox account if they do not have one already (visit dash.dropbox.umich.edu). Part of this effort includes discontinuing the auto-provisioning of new U-M Box accounts to minimize the number of migrations, while also reinforcing the Box retirement. New accounts will be created by exception only by contacting the ITS Service Center.
The Pilot
ITS will be the first unit at the university to pilot the migration out of U-M Box beginning in April 2021. Staff representing all teams within ITS are attending weekly U-M Box retirement sessions to ask questions, hear what others are experiencing, and share with the project team their firsthand experiences with the migration process. Lessons learned are being incorporated into the FAQ and shared with Unit Ambassadors, who then will have the latest information on what exactly to expect during the various phases of the move. Unit Ambassadors can use this insight to inform and assist departments and individuals within their individual units.
Phase Two
In May 2021, ITS will begin the targeted effort to U-M Box Shared Account holders to prepare and schedule their Shared Account’s self-service migration. As some units have established a unique business process around their U-M Box Shared Accounts, Unit Ambassadors will be responsible for working within their units to identify existing business processes and design alternative processes that use U-M Dropbox or a different, more appropriate solution.
Phase Three
In June 2021, ITS will begin the self-service migration of individual U-M Box accounts. The self-service migration process will empower users to have control over when they move their data. This will be an opportunity for end users to perform data hygiene and eliminate any data if they do not want it migrated. Unit Ambassadors will be responsible for working with individuals in their units to identify any existing business processes around individual U-M Box accounts and document those processes to be rebuilt after migration.
More Information
Michigan IT community members who wish to get a better sense of who the Unit Ambassadors are and what is being shared with them can visit the Box Retirement Ambassadors webpage. Questions should be directed to the project team at Box-Retirement-Project@umich.edu.
Jennifer Wilkerson, ITS Infrastructure, contributed to this article.
