Set different file storage locations for your users

What is data residency?

Data residency refers to the physical or geographic location of an organization's data or information and the legal or regulatory requirements imposed on data based on the country or region in which it resides.

Global organizations spread across multiple regions (such as a global law firm with offices spread across the US, EMEA and APAC) need to be able to store client data (files) in distinct regions due to regulatory, customer policy and performance reasons.

What are the Workshare storage locations?

The default Workshare storage location is in EMEA - Ireland. Depending on the entitlement on your Workshare account, you can change the location to another secure Workshare-approved geographical location or specify your own private or on-premise data storage location.

You can then assign individual users to a particular Workshare-approved geographical location or your own private location. Any new file or file versions uploaded to that user’s folders, groups and deals will be stored in the new location.

Note: If you have a large number of users to assign to one or more alternative storage locations, please contact Workshare for assistance.

Here’s how to do it…

You select different storage locations for individual users in the User Management tab of the Admin Console.

To assign a storage location to a user:

1. In the Admin Console, select the User Management tab and select the Users radio button.
2. Click to the left of the user whose storage location you want to change.
3. Scroll to the Storage location area.

Note: If you are using an earlier version of Workshare Compare or Workshare Protect, some of the file storage locations may not be supported for you. To find out more, see Supported data storage regions.

4. Select the location you require for the user from the dropdown list. The options include:

• Default location: The default account location, as specified in the Data Management tab. This is the location each user is assigned by default. If you have no rights to change the storage location or you haven’t yet done so, the user will be using the account’s default location.
• Workshare storage locations: The alternative secure Workshare-approved geographical locations.
• Custom storage locations: Any private or on-premise data storage locations you have set up.

5. Click Apply. From now on, any files that are uploaded to a folder, group or deal that this user owns will be located in the selected storage location. Files that have already been uploaded will not be moved to the new location. The user will not notice any changes and can access their files at any time.

Example

The Minton Dresden Stafford LLP account has file data stored in the default Workshare storage location in EMEA - Ireland. Mintons set the file storage location for one user, Jeremy Stafford, to Americas - Montreal. If Jeremy creates a group called Project Sunrise and invites Lucy, any files that either of them uploads to Project Sunrise will be stored in Americas - Montreal. If Lucy creates a deal called Sunset Deal and invites Jeremy, any files that either of them uploads to Sunset Deal will be stored in EMEA - Ireland.