Adobe Cloud Access
Within Adobe's cloud environment, Managed Enterprise Accounts (Federated IDs) are configured depending on eligibility for access to certain services, features, and functions. Below you will find a breakdown of which services are available to everyone at VCU, which are considered accessible only by "unrestricted" accounts, as well as a list of services, features, and functions that are unavailable for ALL VCU Adobe accounts.
If you have questions about why these elements have been restricted, please refer to the explanations for each service and if you're still not sure, reach out to us by emailing adobe@vcu.edu or submit a ticket at https://itsupport.vcu.edu under the Teaching & Learning > Instructional Resources > Adobe Software > Ask a question category.
Adobe Cloud Access
Terms and Conditions of Usage
Due to restrictions under the terms and conditions of the Adobe Enterprise Term License Agreement (ETLA) with VCU, Adobe Creative Cloud Enterprise Cloud Storage and Adobe Cloud Services CANNOT be used to store any data that is deemed sensitive and/or confidential.
All data stored using the Adobe Creative Cloud Enterprise Cloud Storage platform and any other Adobe Cloud Services must only be data that can be released to the public; classified as Category III by the VCU Data Classification Standard. For more information on data classification and what types of data you can store within Adobe's Creative Cloud Enterprise Storage platform, please visit the VCU Data Management System page here.
Acknowledgement and acceptance of the terms and conditions for access to Adobe Creative Cloud Enterprise Cloud Storage and Adobe Cloud Services is required for ALL VCU Employees (including affiliates) regardless of job code or classification. If you refuse to acknowledge these terms and conditions of usage, you will NOT be granted access to Adobe Creative Cloud Enterprise Cloud Storage and/or Adobe Cloud Services.
All requests to access the Adobe Creative Cloud Enterprise Cloud Storage and Adobe Cloud Services are evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
VCU employees who are employed by any restricted business unit, such as MCV campus units or those that deal with sensitive and/or confidential information on a regular basis are considered "restricted" personnel and may not be granted access to Adobe Creative Cloud Enterprise Cloud Storage or other Adobe Cloud Services per instruction from the VCU Information Security Office.
All requests for Adobe Creative Cloud Enterprise Cloud Storage and Adobe Cloud Services access may take up to 10 calendar days to review. All decisions are considered final.
By agreeing to the terms and conditions of usage, you certify your understanding of this limitation and agree to not store any information that is considered sensitive and/or confidential (classified as category I and category II data) using Adobe's Creative Cloud Enterprise Cloud Storage platform and/or related Adobe Cloud Services including but not limited to the desktop/mobile apps and web/cloud services listed here.
Adobe Acrobat
Under VCU's Adobe Enterprise Term License Agreement (ETLA) Adobe Acrobat has several associated services, including cloud-based features and local desktop application features are disabled for ALL VCU end-users. These services are primarily disabled to limit the storage of certain data types within Adobe's cloud ecosystem such as Microsoft Word and PDF documents, spreadsheets (XLS, XLSX, CSV, SQL, etc), and other files that may regularly contain confidential and/or sensitive information as classified by VCU Data Classification Standards (referenced above under the Terms and Conditions of Access).
If you are a VCU employee and you need to send documents for eSignature, you should use DocuSign which VCU has adopted as it's eSignature and digital signature platform standard. To get started with DocuSign using your VCU email address, please visit https://go.vcu.edu/docusign.
Acrobat for Web (acrobat.adobe.com) - This web-based service is blocked for ALL VCU end-users due to data security concerns. Adobe has specifically stated that we must not store confidential or sensitive information using this platform so the VCU Information Security Office in collaboration with the VCU Instructional Computing Services team has decided to keep this service disabled for ALL end-users using their VCU Adobe accounts.
Acrobat Mobile/Tablet Apps - The following apps are not available for use with a VCU Adobe account: Acrobat Scan, Fill & Sign, and Adobe Sign (for eSignatures). These apps will not work with your VCU Adobe account due to the PDF Services non-core offering being disabled.
Acrobat Pro Desktop App - For most users at VCU using their VCU Adobe account, Acrobat Pro desktop apps for both Microsoft Windows and Apple macOS, there should be no difference in functionality. However, for VCU employees using a VCU-owned computer, only certain cloud-storage providers such as Google and/or Microsoft Sharepoint will be enabled on VCU-owned devices and may vary depending on which business unit, college/school, or department you work for. Features like Adobe Sign (cloud-based eSignature feature), Fill & Sign (local eSignature feature), Sharing for Comments (cloud-based feature), and Adobe's recently introduced Generative AI features for Acrobat are disabled for ALL VCU Adobe accounts.
Legacy Versions of Acrobat (Reader, Standard, and Pro) - Generally speaking it is best to make sure Adobe Acrobat is always up to date with the latest patches, security updates, and bug-fixes. While you should exercise caution with outdated and legacy versions of this software for your personally-owned devices, installing and using ANY legacy versions of Adobe Acrobat on a VCU-owned device is strictly prohibited. The same goes for 32-bit versions of Adobe Acrobat. If you're in doubt about which version is installed on your device(s), we recommend reaching out to the departmental IT support team to help you determine if your version of Adobe Acrobat should be upgraded or if it just needs to install the latest patches.
Adobe Creative Cloud
If you are a non-student VCU employee and you belong to a "restricted" VCU business unit there are certain apps, services, functions, and features you are not going to be able to use with an Adobe Creative Cloud software license assigned to your VCU Adobe account. While the list below is NOT comprehensive, it provides a breakdown of which apps and services are available for unrestricted users vs restricted users.
Adobe Express / Portfolio
Although most VCU students and many VCU employees have access to Adobe Express and Portfolio, there are a few considerations to keep in mind when using these platforms. We've listed a few of the major ones below, but this is not an exhaustive list. If you're unsure about using these platforms or if you have questions about your use-case, please reach out to us to confirm before you invest time building something.
Just email adobe@vcu.edu or submit a ticket at https://itsupport.vcu.edu under the Teaching & Learning > Instructional Resources > Adobe Software > Ask a question category.