OneDrive for Business is an App within Microsoft 365, a service provided by Queen’s for all Students and Staff. Microsoft 365 is managed and governed by Information Services.

You are responsible for the day-to-day management of your OneDrive for Business.

At Queen's University Belfast, students will get access to 20GB of OneDrive storage, and staff will get access to 40GB of OneDrive storage. 

In the Cloud.

Microsoft has multiple datacentres within Europe offering resilience through a hosted redundant network architecture. Queen’s data is currently held in Dublin (live) and the Netherlands with one acting as a backup for the other, typically failover is seamless between centres on a data level.

As part of Queen’s Microsoft 365 service, OneDrive for Business has a Microsoft guaranteed 99.9% scheduled uptime.

• By default, only you can access your OneDrive for Business data. The files and folders you store on OneDrive for Business are private until you decide to share them.
• Files and folders can easily be shared securely with staff, students, or people external to Queens. You have complete control over sharing, for example allowing editing, preventing download, password protecting shared files, etc.
• At any time you can check which files on your OneDrive for Business you have shared and with whom, and you can choose to stop sharing when you wish.

• Files and folders stored on OneDrive for Business can be accessed via the Web from anywhere and from any device. Simply logon to your Queen’s Microsoft 365 account and open the OneDrive for Business App.
• You can also sync some or all of your OneDrive for Business folders to your other personal devices - desktop PC, laptop or mobile - so when you logon to these devices, OneDrive for Business will appear as a destination in File Explorer. When you work on a OneDrive for Business file in the Cloud or on any of your sync’d devices, changes are updated across all your sync’d devices if they are connected to the Internet or, if not, when Internet connectivity is restored.
• You should not sync your OneDrive for Business to shared devices such as student SCC PCs, PCs in Training rooms, etc. On Shared devices you should access and work on your OneDrive for Business files in the Cloud by logging into your Queen's Microsoft 365 account as above. 

If you are syncing OneDrive for Business to a personal device please ensure that your device is secured (with a pin, passcode or fingerprint) and any files containing sensitive information are appropriately encrypted.

OneDrive for Business is not backed up by Information Services.

Files deleted from your OneDrive for Business go into a Recycle Bin and can be recovered locally for up to 93 days and by Microsoft for a further 14 days.

If lots of your OneDrive files get deleted, overwritten, corrupted, or infected by malware, you can restore your entire OneDrive to a previous time within the last 30 days using the 'Files Restore' feature.

With online version history, you can see and restore older versions of your files stored in OneDrive.

Your Queen’s Microsoft 365 account expires as soon when you leave the University. Your OneDrive for Business data is retained for 90 days and access can be given by Information Services to your manager or another secondary owner to move data elsewhere.

Very secure. OneDrive for Business is certified against the internationally recognised ISO/IEC 27001:2013 standard for managing information security and is approved by Queen’s for all data.

With Microsoft 365, your data is encrypted at rest and in transit, using several strong encryption protocols, and technologies that include Transport Layer Security/Secure Sockets Layer (TLS/SSL), Internet Protocol Security (IPSec), and Advanced Encryption Standard (AES).

For more information see OneDrive for Business and Microsoft 365 security.

Yes. You are permitted to store sensitive or protected data on your OneDrive for Business if no prior restrictions have been placed on where that data can be stored, for example by research data providers or similar agencies.

However, you are still responsible for ensuring the data remains protected in compliance with the University’s Data Protection and Information Security Policies. Further information is available from the Information Compliance Unit

Yes. OneDrive for Business is fully supported by the IS ServiceDesk and by School Computing Officers.

Should the IS ServiceDesk or School Computing Officers be unable to resolve an issue, they will raise a support request with Microsoft who are available 24x365.

Yes. Microsoft Admin staff and Queen’s Microsoft 365 Global Admin staff can access any OneDrive for Business. However, as professional administrators, they adhere to a code of conduct and practice that mandates that they do not access or view the contents of any file unless specifically required to do so (either by law or by legitimate instruction from an authorised person).

Furthermore, if sensitive data on a OneDrive for Business is properly encrypted, it is inaccessible to anyone, including Admin staff, who do not possess the necessary encryption keys.