AARNet is decommissioning CloudStor at the end of 2023.
15 years ago, AARNet developed CloudStor to meet a distinct need in the academic space. Researchers were struggling to efficiently share large files and work with one another over the internet. CloudStor filled a considerable gap in the market by providing cloud-based storage, sharing, and collaboration services.
However, now the market looks quite different. Cloud services abound. Lots of large, commercial vendors are providing services in this space – like Dropbox, OneDrive, and Google Drive. Technology has progressed as well.
CloudStor’s underlying software and platform architecture have reached their end of life. Rebuilding the platform to meet the future needs of the sector would require a very substantial investment from AARNet. We’ve calculated that this investment simply isn’t financially viable.
Given that researchers now have access to multiple file sharing products, and the lack of viability of carrying CloudStor into AARNet’s future, we’ve made the decision to decommission CloudStor.
When will AARNet decommission CloudStor?
CloudStor will be decommissioned on Friday 15 December 2023.
We will be notifying users via email and providing more information in the coming months.
Our Customer Relations team will directly contact universities and research institutes with Enterprise Agreements to discuss transition plans.
CloudStor decommission timeline
Which CloudStor services will be decommissioned?
- CloudStor Sync ‘n’ Share – individual AND group drive storage.
- CloudStor SWAN
- CloudStor S3
Will you decommission FileSender?
AARNet will continue to offer the FileSender feature of CloudStor as a stand-alone service for transferring large files online at filesender.aarnet.edu.au.
CloudStor Decommission Clinics
AARNet is hosting monthly clinics to help CloudStor users with issues they may be having downloading or migrating data from their CloudStor drives ahead of the CloudStor decommission on 15 December 2023.
Register for an upcoming CloudStor Decommission Clinic
More information
- Information for institution/tenant admins
- Information for users
- Download or migrate data from CloudStor
- What happens to my CloudStor user data after 15 December 2023?
- Is there a replacement for CloudStor?
- What happens to my CloudStor data that is referenced or linked to in a journal, DOI or other system?
- I have a very large CloudStor drive; how can I get my data?