Please note that this documentation @ time of writing (10-15-2012) is to begin to build the support environment for Box.net and is not intended for rolling out the service at this time. If you are a member of the IT community and would like to be a pilot tester, simply follow the initiation steps below to provision an account. - Lee
About
Tufts University entered into an Internet 2 agreement with Box.net to provide cloud storage for faculty, staff, and students. This service is not expressly licensed for clinical affiliates or contractors, but is seat-licensed for anyone pertaining the following:
- Tufts Username, Tufts Password
- A first.last@tufts.edu email alias
Authentication
Tufts is using ADFS 2.0 to provide a single sign-on experience for users of Box.net cloud storage. We elected to go with ADFS for several reasons:
- ADFS represents a federated authentication service that will represent not only trusting within tufts, but eventually trusting external organizations also tied to the ADFS environment
- ADFS (as opposed to Shibboleth, another federated authentication service Tufts supports) ties directly to active directory. Although Box.net does not currently support OU or Security group mapping in a way that Tufts would leverage, the synergy options in the future to provide storage tied to active directory organizational units is an opportunity we wanted to leave open
By using ADFS, users of the tufts service will be able to continue to use their Tufts Username and Tufts Password to access services that they use most frequently, which will maintain as consistent an experience as possible for our users here at Tufts.
Access & Account Creation
Account Creation
Box.net is configured to allow anyone to self-service provision their Box.net account using their Tufts Username and Tufts Password.
To create an account, simply direct a user to visit tufts.box.com/join for provisioning an account. During the pilot testing you will set a local password. Once the account is created follow the "Access" steps to use the tufts username and tufts password to log in.
Account Access
To log in to box.net, please visit tufts.box.com/login This will prompt you to "Connect" and utilize your Tufts Username and Tufts Password.
If at some point during the pilot it becomes necessary to access your Box.net storage with your local password made during setup, please select "Log in using Box Credentials" from the login screen and you will be able to do that. Please note that once the pilot is over you will only be able to access Box accounts using your Tufts Username and Tufts password, we will retire the ability for local passwords to exist.