ITS is shifting to Microsoft SharePoint as a strategic technology for services.

Microsoft Office 365 SharePoint is a family of technologies and capabilities providing document storage and management in support of individual and collective productivity. The cloud service offers contemporary data storage and security features, such as file sharing with recipients inside and outside the University, self-service permissions management, simultaneous editing, and data encryption. It serves as a central exchange mechanism and backend repository for services such as OneDrive and Teams.

Individuals typically access SharePoint served resources via their browser, but this is a very narrow view of the technology stack; it consists of many different capabilities and often allows for alternate solutions to the same challenge. For example, Microsoft recently added a syncing feature that reconciles digital objects both locally and in the cloud. This alternative to browser-based access presents the customer with a File Explorer folder and files view of the data that is consistent with the rest of their desktop experience. Also, while most are familiar with the data aspects of SharePoint, there is also substantial workflow support integrated into the framework. This greatly facilitates solutions that effectively combine process and data, producing the best practical outcomes.

Microsoft has built their service over time, adding capabilities and features and making it a robust delivery mechanism for many use cases. UConn has full access to all aspects of SharePoint through our strategic enterprise relationship and, consistent with this, ITS will strongly leverage it as we evolve UConn services to better meet the growing needs of our community.

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