As of the fall of 2009, CAE is exploring options for a new file storage system that will expand our storage capability and simplify access - replacing both our Novell NetWare home directories (Windows I: drive), NFS home directories (Linux or U: drive), and group/departmental space. For those that use both Windows and UNIX, the home directory space will be merged and be the same on both platforms. This will not be a quick change and will be phased in over at least one year. If our project is on time, new accounts created this fall will be on the new platform.

While our NetWare and Unix home directory servers have served us well for around 20 years, it's time to provide everyone a single home directory that can be accessed from any of Windows, Mac or Linux workstation. Having a unified file storage has been a goal of CAE's for many years, and the technology has matured enough to meet our high expectations. We are likely to purchase an enterprise-class NAS (Network Attached Storage) system.

We assure you that this will not be a quick transition and CAE will provide tools and techniques to help move to this new storage. We are currently studying current disk space use patterns and will make determinations on how much migration we can automate. For the cases that we cannot automate, we plan to offer tools that will allow you to migrate on your own timeline.