An important component of managing your office's electronic records includes storing them in an appropriate repository. "Will it meet the security and privacy needs of our information while providing the necessary access to support our office workflow?" "What search functionality does it provide?" "Will it enable us to easily organize and manage the records throughout the record lifecycle?" This guide is designed to assist you in choosing the best platform to meet your needs.

This resource is not intended to address the specific data security and privacy concerns of every office at the University of Washington. Beyond the general guidelines provided below, there may be additional requirements that will impact how and where you store your electronic records. For example, a department that works with Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) will need to comply with NIST 800‑171. In addition, the security and privacy provided by many of the services below are dependent on proper configuration and use.

All storage options should be cleared by department leadership in accordance with all the regulations that govern the data and/or operations of your department. Contact UW-IT to ensure your office’s implementation meets the requirements of your records.

Can't find the storage option you're looking to use? Contact us with questions.

At a Glance

Location Approved for
Confidential
Approved for
HIPAA
Configuring for
shared access
Persists beyond
employee separation
Exchange Y Y User-managed N*
Gmail Y N None N**
I: / WFS N N Centrally-managed Y
H: / U: N N None N
OneDrive for Business Y Y User-managed N*
Google Drive Y N User-managed N**
Box / Dropbox N N User-managed N*
SharePoint Y Y Centrally-managed Y
Teams Y Y Centrally-managed Y
Slack N N Centrally-managed N (files)
Y (messages)
DMS (DocFinity) Y Y Centrally-managed Y

† Access to these repositories can be centrally-managed if you use a departmental/shared account.
* These repositories will persist beyond employee separation if you use a departmental/shared account.

** Please visit UW-IT's website for up-to-date news, changes and timelines impacting UW Google including storage quotas for individual accounts, and Google Shared Drive capabilities. Visit our RMS webpage for migrating records off Google.

Visit our E-Record Policy Builder to create your own standard operating procedure for organizing your unstructured data.

Additional Detail

For additional information, please consult this enterprise file service comparison provided by UW-IT.

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