The University has introduced DatAnywhere – a system that enables staff and students to securely share files and access their own M drives and departmental drives when off campus.
Described as ‘an institutional alternative to Dropbox’ the new facility is available immediately and can be accessed using a wide range of devices including mobiles, tablets and PCs/laptops.
DatAnywhere can be used to:
- Share files and folders with fellow staff or students and individuals who are external to the University
- Manage shared workspaces on departmental drives to support collaboration in group
- Synchronise your files across all of your devices so that you can work from any location.
John Cartwright, Director of Computing Services, explained: “Feedback from staff and students showed that people
needed easier access to their work when off campus and a facility for sharing large files with colleagues. Many staff and students rely on USB sticks, portable drives or cloud based services such as Dropbox to store and share their data, which could pose security risks.
“DatAnywhere provides similar functionality to Dropbox, without the security risk of accidentally sharing confidential information or sensitive research.”
Staff can access DatAnywhere using dedicated apps for iOS (iPhone/iPad) and Android which are free to download from the App Store/Google Play. Alternatively, a web portal can be accessed by visiting https://datanywhere.liv.ac.uk: simply login using your University username and password. From here you can also install the dedicated Windows or Apple Mac client.
To get started, visit the support pages at http://www.liv.ac.uk/csd/datanywhere which provide detailed guidance for using the service on a range of different devices.
Computing Services Department is constantly seeking feedback to improve the service offered across campus. If you have any ideas or suggestions, or would like to share how you plan to use the new DatAnywhere service, please contact the Helpdesk – http://www.liv.ac.uk/csd/helpdesk or get in touch with us on Twitter @liverpoolcsd.