Microsoft Sharepoint and storage addons for education

This article provides an overview of the various SharePoint and storage addons available for educational institutions using Microsoft 365. These addons enhance the functionality and management of digital resources, ensuring that schools and universities can effectively secure, manage, and optimize their data and collaboration environments.

Requirements

  • Microsoft A3 license

Roles and responsibilities

  • IT Admin
  • Identity Admin
  • OneDrive Admin
  • SharePoint Admin
  • EXO Admin

Microsoft SharePoint and storage licenses addons

Description M365-A1 M365-A3 M365-A5 O365-A1 O365-A3 O365-A5
Sharepoint Advanced Management
Extra Graph Connector Capacity
Microsoft 365 Extra File Storage
eDiscovery Storage
Advanced Data Residency

SharePoint Advanced Management

SharePoint Advanced Management in education provides institutions with enhanced tools and capabilities to secure, manage, and optimize their digital environments. Designed to meet the unique needs of educational organizations, it ensures that sensitive data, such as student records and institutional reports, is protected through advanced security features like conditional access policies and granular administrative controls. SharePoint Advanced Management enables seamless collaboration among faculty, students, and administrators by streamlining access to shared resources while maintaining strict compliance with regulations such as FERPA. Additionally, it offers insights into content usage and access patterns, helping schools and universities optimize resource allocation. With features like automated workflows, lifecycle management for files, and the ability to manage large-scale content repositories efficiently, SharePoint Advanced Management empowers educational institutions to foster a secure, organized, and collaborative learning environment.

Key features:

  • Granular access controls:

    • Manage access to SharePoint sites and documents with advanced policies.
    • Enable conditional access for unmanaged or personal devices.

  • Data loss prevention (DLP):

    • Implement policies to prevent sensitive information (for example, student records, financial data) from being shared externally.

  • Enhanced external sharing management:

    • Configure advanced sharing settings for external users.
    • Allow or restrict sharing for specific sites or content libraries.

  • Auditing and monitoring:

    • Access detailed audit logs for SharePoint usage and activities.
    • Identify potential risks and anomalies with proactive monitoring.

  • Information governance:

    • Apply retention labels and policies to educational content.
    • Ensure compliance with data protection regulations (for example, FERPA, GDPR).

  • Secure collaboration:

    • Support secure file sharing for students, teachers, and staff.
    • Integrate with Microsoft Teams for real-time collaboration in education scenarios.

Benefits for education:

  • Protect sensitive academic and administrative data.
  • Ensure compliance with regulatory requirements specific to educational institutions.
  • Streamline content collaboration and sharing between students, teachers, and external partners.
  • Enhance visibility and control over SharePoint environments across campuses.

Use case examples:

  • Student records protection: Apply DLP policies to prevent unauthorized sharing of student information.
  • Secure collaboration with partners: Enable external sharing for research projects while maintaining strict controls.
  • Content retention: Set up retention policies for coursework and administrative files to align with institutional policies

Integration with Microsoft 365:

SharePoint Advanced Management seamlessly integrates with other Microsoft 365 services, such as Microsoft Teams, OneDrive, and Azure Information Protection, enabling a holistic approach to content security and compliance.

Extra Graph Connector capacity

Extra Graph Connector capacity in education enhances the ability of institutions to seamlessly integrate external data sources into the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, particularly within Microsoft Search. This added capacity allows schools, colleges, and universities to expand their access to relevant educational data, enabling comprehensive search capabilities across internal and external repositories. With Extra Graph Connector capacity, educational institutions can link critical systems like learning management systems (LMS), library catalogs, and administrative databases, ensuring that educators, students, and staff have unified access to valuable resources. By leveraging this capacity, institutions can break down data silos, improve operational efficiency, and support a more collaborative, informed educational environment while maintaining strict compliance with data governance and privacy standards.

Key benefits:

  • Enhanced search capabilities: Provides students, educators, and administrators with unified search experiences across various data sources.
  • Customizable integration: Supports integration with external educational platforms, such as Moodle, Blackboard, or library databases, enabling a seamless flow of information.
  • Improved efficiency: Reduces the time spent searching for information by providing centralized access to institutional resources.
  • Scalable solution: Accommodates the growing data needs of educational institutions by allowing increased capacity for content indexing.

Use cases:

  • Library system integration: Connect academic library catalogs to Microsoft Search, enabling users to find books, research papers, and other materials directly within their Microsoft 365 apps.
  • LMS connectivity: Index course materials, assignments, and announcements from external LMS platforms for easy accessibility.
  • Administrative resource access: Provide centralized search capabilities for faculty and administrative staff to access policies, guidelines, and forms.

Licensing and requirements:

  • Extra Graph Connector capacity is an addon feature available for Microsoft 365 Education licenses.
  • Institutions may need to purchase additional licenses based on the volume of external data and the number of connectors required.

Learn more about Extra Graph Connector capacity:

Microsoft 365 Extra File Storage

Microsoft 365 Extra File Storage is an addon solution designed to provide educational institutions with additional cloud storage capacity beyond the standard limits included in Microsoft 365 plans. This offering is especially beneficial for schools, colleges, and universities that generate and manage large volumes of data, such as class materials, multimedia content, research documents, and administrative files. With Extra File Storage, institutions can ensure seamless access to critical files for students, faculty, and staff while maintaining compliance with security and data governance standards. It integrates seamlessly with Microsoft 365 applications like OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams, enabling collaborative workspaces and efficient document management. This solution supports education-specific needs, such as archiving historical data, managing extensive research files, and accommodating the growing demand for digital learning resources, ensuring a flexible and scalable storage environment for the modern educational landscape.

Key features:

  • Additional storage capacity: Expand the available storage in your Microsoft 365 Education tenant beyond the standard allocation.
  • Flexible scaling: Add extra storage based on your institution's needs, ensuring data capacity isn't a limitation.
  • Centralized management: Administrators can monitor and allocate storage across users and services via the Microsoft 365 admin center.
  • Secure and compliant: Extra storage adheres to Microsoft’s robust security standards, ensuring compliance with educational data regulations.
  • Seamless integration: Works seamlessly with existing Microsoft 365 services, including Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive.

Storage tiers:

  • Each Microsoft 365 Education tenant receives initial storage allocations that include:
    • OneDrive for Business: Individual user storage (for example, 1 TB or unlimited depending on the plan).
    • SharePoint Online: Organization-wide pooled storage (for example, 1 TB + 10 GB per licensed user).
  • Extra Storage addons:
    • More storage can be purchased in increments (for example, 1-TB blocks) to meet organizational requirements.

Pricing:

  • Extra file storage is offered as a pay-as-you-go addon.
  • Prices vary based on region and the amount of storage required. For detailed pricing, refer to your Microsoft Education representative or reseller.

Use cases:

  • Research projects: Large-scale research files and datasets.
  • Media storage: High-resolution videos, photos, and other multimedia resources.
  • Archival needs: Long-term storage for institutional records and archived data.
  • Collaboration: Shared resources for teams, classes, and group projects.

How to Purchase:

  • Extra storage can be purchased via the Microsoft 365 Admin Center:
    1. Navigate to Billing > Purchase Services.
    2. Search for "Extra File Storage" or similar addon.
    3. Select the desired storage increment and complete the purchase.

eDiscovery Storage

In the context of education, eDiscovery Storage is a vital component that supports institutions in managing, preserving, and retrieving electronic information for legal, regulatory, and investigative purposes. Educational institutions often deal with sensitive data, including student records, faculty communications, and administrative documents, all of which may need to be preserved during disputes, compliance audits, or regulatory investigations. eDiscovery Storage ensures that such information is securely retained and easily accessible when required. With robust features such as data retention policies, advanced search capabilities, and legal hold options, eDiscovery Storage helps institutions streamline the process of identifying and collecting relevant electronic data. It also ensures compliance with regulations like FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) while maintaining data integrity and security. By integrating with tools like Microsoft 365, eDiscovery Storage provides educators and administrators with an efficient way to handle legal and compliance-related data demands in a cost-effective and organized manner.

Key features:

  • Data retention: Secure storage of emails, documents, chats, and other electronic records that might be required for legal or regulatory purposes.
  • Search and export: Tools to efficiently search across stored content and export relevant information for investigations or compliance.
  • Case management: Ability to create, manage, and organize eDiscovery cases to streamline investigations and litigation workflows.
  • Security and compliance: Ensures that all stored data complies with institutional policies and relevant regulations, such as FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act).

Importance in education:

  • Helps educational institutions handle legal inquiries, disputes, and audits efficiently.
  • Protects sensitive student and faculty data during investigations.
  • Supports transparency and accountability in managing institutional records.

Advanced Data Residency

Advanced Data Residency in education refers to the strategic management of where educational data is stored, processed, and accessed, ensuring compliance with regional and institutional data governance policies. In an increasingly globalized digital environment, schools and universities must adhere to strict regulations such as GDPR, FERPA, and other local laws that dictate data sovereignty and privacy requirements. Advanced data residency solutions enable educational institutions to choose specific geographic locations for their data storage, ensuring that sensitive student, faculty, and institutional information remains within authorized regions. This capability not only enhances data security but also builds trust among stakeholders by demonstrating a commitment to privacy and compliance. Furthermore, it allows institutions to meet the unique challenges of cross-border education, ensuring that data flows securely while maintaining high performance and accessibility. Advanced data residency is a critical component for fostering a secure and compliant digital environment in education.

Key aspects of Advanced Data Residency in education:

  • Geographic data control: Guarantees that data remains in designated geographic regions or countries to align with regulatory requirements.
  • Compliance with local laws: Meets the requirements of data protection laws such as GDPR (EU), FERPA (US), or other regional regulations.
  • Data sovereignty: Provides assurance that educational data is subject to local governance, minimizing exposure to foreign jurisdictional risks.
  • Security and privacy: Ensures that data is protected using advanced encryption and secure storage, enhancing privacy for students and educators.
  • Accessibility and transparency: Allows institutions to monitor where their data resides and how it's managed, improving trust and accountability.

Benefits in education:

  • Compliance assurance: Helps institutions meet regulatory and accreditation requirements tied to data residency.
  • Enhanced trust: Builds confidence among students, parents, and staff by ensuring sensitive data is handled locally and securely.
  • Customizable residency options: Offers flexibility for institutions to choose residency models that suit their specific needs.

Use cases:

  • Universities and schools storing student records in compliance with GDPR in the EU.
  • Educational organizations requiring data residency in specific regions to support government policies.
  • Protecting sensitive data in areas with strict educational privacy regulations, such as FERPA in the United States.
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