April 16, 2008

The following message has been updated to include additional alternative options for customers using the WebFiles service:

On June 27, 2008 IST will discontinue the WebFiles service. There are several campus services that support file storage and sharing, and web site hosting. While WebFiles is a very useful service, it duplicates, to a certain degree, the functionality provided by other services such as bSpace, CalShare, OCF and CalWeb. In our efforts to get the most from our investments in central campus services, we feel we should avoid investing in services whose functionality significantly overlaps with other services.

As an alternative to WebFiles, we recommend that students, faculty, and staff who are interested in basic web-based file storage consider bSpace (https://bspace.berkeley.edu/) which is available with 1 GB of storage at no direct cost. To help with this transition, we have created two Knowledge Base articles providing instructions about migrating files from WebFiles to bSpace. Please see:

http://kb.berkeley.edu/kb2546 "Uploading Files to bSpace"
http://kb.berkeley.edu/kb2545 "WebFiles Migration to bSpace"

Departments needing more advanced document management features may wish to consider CalShare (https://calshare.berkeley.edu/Pages/default.aspx). This service costs $53/month per site. Each CalShare site includes 1GB of storage as part of the monthly fee.

Another alternative to WebFiles is the Open Computing Facility (OCF). The OCF is a volunteer student run service on campus. This service, while not financially supported by IST or other campus departments offers the ability to host a website at no cost to students, faculty or staff. Please see:

http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/

Departments needing more advanced web site hosting solutions, such as CalWeb, can review the IST services at:

http://ist.berkeley.edu/services/tam/webhosting.html

For more information, or if you have questions, please contact one of the following:

bSpace user support: lsg-support@media.berkeley.edu
WebFiles technical support: webfiles@berkeley.edu
IST service offerings or general questions: tam@berkeley.edu

UCB Messaging Steering Committee