Azure Files: EITS and Client Responsibilities

EITS responsibilities

  • Provision requested Azure Files shares and monitor capacity utilization 

  • Configure and maintain backups/snapshots for data stored in the service and validate restore capability at least quarterly 

  • Provide monitoring, operational support, and proactive client communications (standard support 8:00am to 5:00pm Monday to Friday excluding University holidays/closures; emergencies/outages target up to a 1-hour response time outside standard hours; extended support after hours is best-effort per EITS on-call procedures) 

  • Maintain the underlying Azure infrastructure configuration and security controls for the service, and schedule maintenance/patching to minimize business-hours downtime (when feasible, outside UGA standard business hours) 

  • Provide cost recovery/billing administration for the service and a business process for storage changes as needed 

  • Provide file share usage trending reports and capacity planning recommendations upon request

Client responsibilities

  • Designate a business contact for billing/cost recovery changes or issues and keep contact information current 

  • Designate a technical contact for service changes, access requests, and operational questions and keep contact information current 

  • Own and manage data stored in the share (classification, retention, organization/cleanup, and access controls such as share/NTFS permissions) 

  • The following uses are not supported for the standard Azure Files service offering: 

    • Storing personal (non-University) data such as personal photos 

    • Storing or distributing copyrighted/DMCA-protected media (e.g., music or movies) 

    • Running applications that rely on flat-file databases hosted directly on the share (performance and support limitations) 

    • Web publishing scenarios that use the file share as backend web content storage without an approved architecture 

    • Storing restricted data (e.g., Social Security numbers, HIPAA/health data, payment card data) unless explicitly approved for a secure storage offering 

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