Automated Home Folder Provisioning and Cleanup

Research indicates that despite all of the benefits of cloud storage, most organizations are not migrating all of their data to the cloud. Rather, they are adopting a hybrid arrangement between cloud and on-prem storage. While the reasons for dispersing the storage of some files to the cloud and others to on-prem file servers or NAS devices vary by organization, it’s clear that many organizations will continue to maintain network file systems with their millions of files, folders and shares. Fortunately, Condrey Corporation has a Windows file system automation solution for creating user home folders and shared folders and for cleaning these folders up.

Automated Home Folder Provisioning

Condrey Corporation’s Senergy product is the means of creating policies that take action when events take place in Active Directory (AD). One of these actions can be creating user role-specific home folders when a user is added to an AD container. For example, if a new user object is added to the H.R. container in the organization’s AD domain, a home folder for the user – with the access rights, disk quota, and even files structured in a file system within the home folder – can be created automatically. Furthermore, based on the role of the new user, the user can be given access to shared network folders.

Shared Folder Provisioning

Senergy policies can also automate the creation of project storage for a group. For example, if an organization were to assign various employees to a project, the employees could be made members of a new group object in AD. This could then automatically trigger the creation of a network folder for the group members for storing project documents, complete with access rights and disk quota.

Cleanup

Senergy provides multiple automated means to clean up files. One method is through “grooming” that let you establish rules for removing files from home folders according to file type, file size, when files were last accessed, and more. For example, to free up disk space you could easily remove all of the .tmp files residing in home folders in a container. Additionally, you could move unallowable files such as personal music files from home folders to a “vault” location.

Home folder policies can also clean up files when a user leaves an organization. For example, when a user leaves the organization, you can specify the number of days the home folder remains and is accessible until it is archived or deleted.

When your objective is to clean up a data by moving stored data from one network location to another or one server to another, Senergy policies can automate that as well. One method is to simply change the location of the “target path” of the home folder and then let the Senergy move the data to the new target path. Another is automating a user home folder migration when a user object is moved to a new container in AD. Finally, there are specific Move policies that you can create to move specific storage folders.

Leverages Existing IAM System

If your organization utilizes an Identity and Access Management (IAM) system to provision user accounts and access to applications, Senergy, working with the IAM system, can simultaneously provision user home folders according to the specifications of the policies you establish. With automation of application access and user storage, Senergy completes the account automation lifecycle of data management for users.