Technical University Of Berlin Chooses ownCloud

Founded in 1879, Technical University of Berlin (TU Berlin) is a research university located in Berlin, Germany and is one of the largest and prestigious research and education institutions in Germany.

Students, researchers, teachers and administrators at the TU Berlin depend on the secure exchange of files.

Now, with the help of ownCloud, Inc., they can retain control over their own data, in accordance with Germany’s strict data protection regulations.

ownCloud Enterprise Edition protects sensitive files, all while giving end users flexible and easy access to files, from any device, from anywhere. And ownCloud’s Server-to-Server Sharing enables users on one ownCloud instance to share files with users on a different ownCloud installation without using share links. Both users retain the privacy and control of a private, hosted ownCloud, but gain the flexibility and ease-of-use of a public cloud.

ownCloud at TU Berlin
The implementation of ownCloud at TU Berlin (dubbed TUBCloud) began more than a year ago with ownCloud’s Community Edition. The University changed to the Enterprise Edition because secure file sync and share is becoming increasingly important for collaboration. The university will gradually integrate ownCloud into the existing IT processes of different areas of research, teaching and administration, so that the number of users can be increased from the current 7,000 to more than 30,000. Individual users receives 20GB (students) or 100GB (employees) of storage of the total TU has committed to the project: currently 12TB and up to 200TB.

Decisive factors for ownCloud
Among the advantages of ownCloud, TU counts access of the files via all major platforms – PC, Mac and Linux computers – as well as using a smartphone or tablet via apps for Android and iOS.

According to Dr. Thomas Hildmann, head of department, TUBIT, TU Berlin, said: “Equally important was that our data will be maintained within the university in compliance with its own level of security.“

“We want to actively support powerful open source software – which we do by our change to the Enterprise Edition and also hosting the ownCloud Contributor Conference this summer,” he added. “With the new implementation, we are now able to offer ownCloud to other universities as our service, so that they too benefit from a modern solution for secure and reliable data exchange.“

“By using ownCloud in their own data center, the TU Berlin enables their administrative staff, researchers and students to use a file sync and share cloud service without running afoul of data protection laws, or other legal challenges,” said Holger Dyroff, co-founder and MD EMEA, ownCloud. “By branding the system throughout (TUBCloud) user’s easily identify the service is University run, protected by TU Berlin. We got great feedback from the TU Berlin IT staff to further improve ownCloud to provide a unique easy-to-use end user experience, based on a self-service approach while maintaining legal, security and manageability for IT and end users.“