A folder anyone can open
A club saves its member list on a shared drive. Everyone with a login can open it, edit it or delete it. One day a column vanishes.
Nobody knows who did it. Where data is kept, in what form, and who may touch it are choices. This lesson makes them on purpose.
Key words
| Word | What it means | Example |
|---|---|---|
| On premises | Stored on equipment your organisation owns and runs on its own site. | A server in the school office |
| Cloud | Stored on equipment run by a provider that you reach over the internet. | An online storage account |
| Third party | Stored or handled by another company on your behalf. | A firm that runs your backups |
| Permission | What a person is allowed to do with data: read, write or delete. | Read only |
| Access | Whether a person can get to the data at all. | A login for the club team |
| Database | A store of organised data that a program can search. | The member table |
| CSV | A plain text file where commas split each line into columns. | bun,4,2 |
| Compliance | Following the law and security rules that apply. | UK GDPR |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
By the end of this lesson
Note
I can choose where and how to store data, set permissions, and review that the choice met the need.
Starter: what you already know
Have a go
Starter: what you already know
3 questionsYour answers are marked here and are not kept. A college account keeps every student’s marks.
Where to store data
| Place | Who runs it | Good for | Take care |
|---|---|---|---|
| On premises | You | Full control | You pay and maintain it |
| Cloud | A provider | Easy growth and access | Check where it is held |
| Third party | Another firm | Skills you lack | You still answer for the data |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
Format, order and access
Choose a format that suits the data. A database suits tables that many people use. A CSV file suits a simple export.
Organise it by a clear rule, such as one folder for each year. Apply permissions so each person can do only what their job needs. Follow the law and security rules that apply.
Try it: check a permission
role = "analyst"
action = "delete"
if role == "admin":
print("allowed")
elif role == "analyst" and action != "delete":
print("allowed")
else:
print("refused: this role may not", action)
# Try it: change action to "write" and press Run.
Review the operation
After storing, check the job. Can the right people open the data? Can the wrong people not? Is it in the format you chose? Is it backed up?
If any answer is no, change the setup and check again.