Richmond continues transition from Netfiles to new Box storage system

During the next few months, Richmond will be replacing Netfiles with Box, a new storage system.

Box is a cloud-based file storage system that allows users to store and share files from multiple devices, including computers and smart phones, said Troy Boroughs, assistant vice president for systems and networks.

Last March, Box accounts were created for all students, faculty and staff, and on Oct. 15, Netfiles will become read-only, Boroughs said. Read-only means that users will be able to view and copy files on Netfiles, but they will not be able to change, add or delete any files.

The primary motivation for moving from Netfiles to Box was Box’s collaborative features, Boroughs said.

“We’ve always had file storage here for students, faculty and staff, but it was a little cumbersome to share stuff with people,” Boroughs said.

Netfiles can only be accessed by people associated with Richmond, but Box files can be shared with anyone in the world who has a Box account, Boroughs said.

Files stored in Box are kept private unless a user intentionally shares them, Boroughs said. The administrators of Box at Richmond can see the total number of users and files, but they cannot see what individual users are storing.

Another reason Box was chosen over other file storage services was because of its security, Boroughs said. Unlike some other storage services, Box stores all of its data in the United States.

“Cloud sounds freeing and easy, but you also have to be very careful about who has access to it and where it’s stored,” Boroughs said.

Another benefit to choosing Box was its improved storage capabilities, Boroughs said. On Netfiles, students were limited to 1 gigabyte of storage, and faculty and staff were limited to 10 gigabytes. With Box, all users have unlimited storage.

The switch from Netfiles to Box has been difficult for many professors, said Ricardo Celleri, a student employee at the Help Desk. Last semester, there was a significant increase in the number of professors visiting the Help Desk.

“They were having problems transferring files and just understanding how it works,” Celleri said.

Richmond is not the first university to begin using Box, Boroughs said. Many other universities, including University of Michigan, University of Notre Dame and Duke University have also begun to implement the technology. Contacting these other schools was part of Richmond's research before choosing Box.

“With anything that affects all faculty, staff and students, you don’t just change it,” Boroughs said. “It took at least a year to get all the communications, approvals and pricing done.”

Richmond is paying an annual fee of $33,125 to use Box, and the school also paid a set up fee of around $5,000, Boroughs said. These fees are calculated in part by the number of people at the institution, and are a significant discount from what commercial users are charged.

The last day Netfiles will be available in read-only mode is June 15, Boroughs said. After that date, files on Netfiles will no longer be accessible.  

Contact reporter Jack Clark at john.s.clark@richmond.edu.