Email, Collaboration & Storage

Email, Collaboration & Storage

OIT provides and supports email, communication, and storage services across campus. Learn how to access your accounts and choose the right collaboration tools for your department or research needs.

Email

Jones Graduate School of Business

Faculty, staff, and students in the Jones Graduate School of Business use Microsoft Office 365 for email and collaboration, supported by the Rice Business: Office of Technology.

Undergraduate and Graduate Students

Undergraduate and graduate students use the Google web interface for email and the full suite of Google Workspace for Education applications.

Faculty and Staff

Faculty and staff also use Google Mail and the full suite of Google Workspace for Education apps.

Legacy Webmail (Cyrus Mail)

Employees who started before January 1, 2021, and graduate students enrolled after January 2019 previously used Webmail (Cyrus Mail). During 2024–2025, these users were migrated to the Google Mail platform.

Collaboration & Storage

Overview

Rice offers a variety of collaboration and storage solutions for faculty, staff, and students. For details, visit the KnowledgeBase.

Learn more about asset risk classifications and which data classifications are permitted on commonly used IT services.

CrashPlan Backup

CrashPlan is a cost-recovery backup service that automatically backs up targeted files on Rice-owned PCs and Macs. It can be purchased for both office and lab computers and offers unlimited backup size. Note that CrashPlan is not cumulative—it retains copies of data currently on your device.

Department Drive

Department Drive is a private Rice storage solution shared among members of a department or group. Mount or map the drive on your computer to access departmental files.

Google Drive

Google Drive provides secure cloud storage and file sharing with internal and external collaborators. Log in to google.com using your NetID and Google password.

Microsoft OneDrive

Microsoft OneDrive is a cloud-based file storage and sharing solution included in the Microsoft Office Suite.

Research Data Facility (RDF)

The Research Data Facility (RDF) provides scalable, secure, and flexible storage for Rice’s research community. It combines cloud-based and on-premises storage to meet the diverse needs of research groups.

Rice Box

Rice Box is a U.S.-based cloud storage service that supports secure file sharing between Rice NetID users and external collaborators. Login requires your Rice NetID and password.

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