Microsoft365 Storage Management Recommendations and Progress

Department(s):

Information Technology Services

This message was emailed to employes and students on November 11, 2025.

Microsoft365 Storage Management – Community Update November 2025

Message Summary: File storage recommendations, Student January goal, Potpourri auto-delete, remove personal data, status update

 

Dear WPI Employees and Students, 

 

Information Technology Services (ITS) continues to assess WPI data and email needs through the Microsoft365 Storage Management project.  Since September, the focus has been on removing personal items. To address remaining files and messages, please consider File Storage Recommendations and ensure that items are stored appropriately. We appreciate the efforts to manage and reduce storage. Many more community members are working within the new quota. For those who are not, ITS will continue providing support and ensuring that you can access the data you need.  

 

Action Needed: 

  • File Storage Recommendations: Options supported by ITS can be found in File Storage Recommendations on the Help Portal. As a reminder, current or historical data and email that colleagues need to access should not be in one individual’s WPI mailbox or OneDrive, nor should these be moved to temporary storage such as a flash drive or computer desktop. WPI data should never be moved to personal non-WPI cloud storage.
  • Student C Term Goal: Please manage your data prior to the start of C-Term 2026. This enables ITS to plan for current and future storage needs. If you are unable to operate within the new limits of 15 GB for Outlook email and 15 GB for OneDrive data, contact ITS.
  • Potpourri: ITS will optimize storage by minimizing how long “Potpourri” employee mailing list messages are saved. An auto-delete process for messages older than 90 days will begin in February 2026. Details and instructions will be sent to Potpourri.
  • Remove personal data: Please continue to assess what is in your WPI email and OneDrive, which are intended for WPI business and academic usage. It is very important that you avoid using these for personal matters, including but not limited to medical records, social media, personal finances, running businesses not related to WPI, etc. The more email is connected to social and commercial sites, the more prone it is to phishing. Data stored in Microsoft365 is subject to university privacy policies, and terms of service – which could change. Additionally, it is problematic when separating from WPI because access to essential personal notifications and files is lost. For email, note messages from personal sources, unsubscribe your WPI email address, and replace it with your personal email address. For OneDrive, move personal data to a non-WPI means of storage.
  • Consult with ITS: Please contact ITS if you need to retain large amounts of data and email for academic and business purposes so that we can understand what you need to store and assist with a solution.

 

Resources:

 

Status: 

Thank you to all who have reduced your storage and worked with ITS to retain necessary data.  «Since May 1, 2025, WPI total storage used has decreased by over 115 TB, and we are successfully clarifying our future Microsoft 365 storage needs! «

 

Best, 

Vijay Menta, Vice President and Chief Information Officer 

LeeAnn LeClerc, Chief Information Security & Technology Officer