George Mason University's current shared folder space MESA (also known as the M: drive) will reach the end of its support as of June 30, 2024. A consultant has been engaged to assist with transitioning the necessary data from MESA into appropriate locations within Mason’s existing Microsoft 365 suite (M365); this includes OneDrive, Microsoft Teams and SharePoint.
The project will be conducted in two phases—phase 1 is migrating data from users’ “mydata” folder into their personal OneDrive account. This will be completed in stages from March 15 – April 5. Phase 2 will be migrating data in departmental shared folders to other locations such as MS Teams or SharePoint.
Phase 2 is where each department will need to evaluate the data they currently have within MESA to determine what should be deleted, what should be downloaded to a physical location, and what should be moved to an M365 space. The consultants, ITS, and our experts within CHSS will be reaching out to departmental share Technical Points of Contact (TPOC) and share administrators to determine their use cases and help figure out the best option moving forward.
The college will provide as much guidance and assistance as possible; however we do ask that all units begin reviewing their data in MESA now so that they are prepared for these conversations when they start.
More information on the MESA migration project can be found on the project roadmap website: https://its.gmu.edu/knowledge-base/mesaroadmap/.
Data retention policies can be found here: https://recordsmanagement.gmu.edu/resources.
For concerns about Highly Sensitive Data, information is located on the ITS website: https://its.gmu.edu/service/highly-sensitive-data/.
For questions about the university process, please email mesa2m365@gmu.edu. For questions related to your unit, please contact your Office Manager. For CHSS-specific questions, reach out to Craig Zaccaro at czaccaro@gmu.edu.
February 29, 2024