Higher education IT departments have been confronting cloud storage dilemmas since Googleestablished limitson the service last year.Google, which has long offered some of its services free to universities, is now capping the amount of free cloud storage available to institutions at 100 terabytes across Drive, Gmail, Photos and other apps that are part of theGoogle Workspace for Education suite.
That number may seem high, but it’s insufficient for universities, particularly research universities, that can have tens of thousands of users storing data. Take theUniversity of Hawai‘i, which is currently storing almost 2 petabytes (2,000 TB) of data,according to Garret Yoshimi, the university’s IT vice president and CIO.And per a December statementfromIowa State University, that university is on pace to lapse to read-only status unless it can reduce its data storage in Drive and Photos by more than 60 percent.
To fall within the new limit, universities will need to curb cloud storage,upgrade to a paid edition of Workspace for Education, or both. The 100TB of storage is the total amount available to an entire organization pooled across all users, but it is notable that archived storage in Google Vault isn’t counted.
The limits were supposed to go into effect in July of last year, but a number of universities have been given extensions, and any institution that purchased the Google Workspace for Education Plus package has also been granted a later deadline.
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How Universities Are Responding to Google’s Storage Limits
Since the announcement, universities havehad to find ways to comply with these limitsand consider alternative cloud or on-premises storage options. Many institutions are implementing stricter storage guidelines for individual users and trimming the fat where they can, including by establishing or tightening rules for retiring inactive user accounts.
To meet its overall quota, Iowa State began enforcing a 3-gigabyte quota for all individual Drive accounts. Any accounts exceeding that will move to read-only status until they meet the quota. A message across the top of the Drive site alerts Iowa State employees who are near or over their personal storage limits.
Lewis & Clarkcollege hastaken a similar approach, capping faculty, staff, students, departmental accounts and departmental shared drives at certain gigabyte limits to stay within storage quotas. To arrive at a cap for each group, the university analyzed the data consumed by each group and distributed the available 100TB accordingly.
DISCOVER:Why your college needs a Google Workspace for Education audit.
TheUniversity of Michiganalsoannounced storage limits for users. Active users will receive 250GB or storage, while alumni and retirees will have just 15GB to use. The decisionreportedly has led to some frustrationamong current students and alumni.
Meanwhile, despite its need for much more than 100TB, the University of Hawai‘i is set to stick with Google, given the major lift (and cost) that would be required to move storage on-premises or to a different cloud provider. The universityannounced in the fallthat all faculty and staff will be provided with Google Workspace for Education Plus licenses, which includes an additional 20GB for each licensed user on top of the 100TB of pooled cloud storage.
Maximizing Google Storage Space and Finding Alternatives
CDW Education Amplified Servicescan help universities make the most out of Google Workspace for Education even with the storage limits.Gopher for Drivehelps organizations understand storage consumption on their domains, developing reports on overall and individual storage usage and offering shared file details.
Google’s limits may also have universities considering other storage options, and storage platforms with consumption-based models may be more suitable for some. In such a model, universities pay for a base level of storage capacity, then pay for what is used beyond that level. The advantage is that you have more flexibility to scale storage as needed and control exactly how much you pay. Storage as a Service models have a similar pay-per-use structure where you pay only for what you use, and the vendor takes care of the lifecycle management.
UP NEXT:Five security myths about Google Workspace for Education.
FAQs
Many institutions are implementing stricter storage guidelines for individual users and trimming the fat where they can, including by establishing or tightening rules for retiring inactive user accounts. To meet its overall quota, Iowa State began enforcing a 3-gigabyte quota for all individual Drive accounts.
When Google ends unlimited storage for educational institutions? ›
At the end of 2020, Google announced the end of unlimited storage for all educational institutions. Starting in November 2024, Google will enforce storage limits, and the university will be required to reduce its Google Workspace storage consumption.
What is the new storage policy for Google Education? ›
The new storage policy took effect for Google Workspace for Education customers in July 2022. How much storage is included with Google Workspace for Education? Schools and universities have a baseline of 100 TB of pooled storage shared across users and accounts.
How much storage space does Google have on educators Drive? ›
Google Workspace for Education editions provide a baseline of 100 TB of pooled storage for your institution, and options for increasing storage.
What is the storage limit for Google at Harvard? ›
Harvard University Information Technology will begin enforcing a default storage limit of 25 gigabytes on Google accounts starting this spring, according to a statement released by Faculty of Arts and Sciences administrators last week.
Why is Google removing unlimited storage? ›
The policy shift was spurred, Google says, because “as we've grown to serve more schools and universities each year, storage consumption has also rapidly accelerated. Storage is not being consumed equitably across—nor within—institutions, and school leaders often don't have the tools they need to manage this.”
What happens when Google storage runs out? ›
When your account reaches its storage limit, you can't: Send or receive emails through Gmail. Upload photos or videos through Google Photos. Upload files to Drive or create new files in Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, or Jamboard.
What counts against Google storage? ›
Files in Google Drive, which includes PDFs, images, and videos. Meet call recordings. Files created or edited in collaborative content creation apps like Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, Recorder, Vids, and Jamboard. Files created or edited after June 1, 2021 count against your quota.
Do I have to keep paying for Google storage? ›
If you do run out of storage, you'll see a message asking you to upgrade to a Google One plan, but you don't have to buy digital storage. Here are some tricks to easily clear up space in your digital filing cabinet for free.
Do students get unlimited storage on Google Drive? ›
Students and alumni currently have unlimited storage for Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos. However, Google recently announced their new storage limits for Google Workspace for Education (formerly known as G Suite for Education).
Sign up for Google Workspace for Education
- Go to the Google Workspace for Education sign-up page.
- Enter your details in the form.
- Review the Google Workspace for Education School Consent terms and click Agree and Continue.
- Review the Google Workspace for Education Agreement terms and click Agree and create account.
After unpacking your new Chromebook, activate your free 100GB Google Drive storage.
- Go to the Google promotional website on your Chromebook: google.com/chromebook/perks/.
- Scroll to Google One storage and select 'Get perk'.
- Accept the conditions.
- Let the browser check whether you device has a ChromeOS operating system.
Delete old accounts, shared drives, and duplicated content—Purging unnecessary user accounts or shared drives can help free up storage. Remove content such as remnant files left over from copying them to shared drives or Google Cloud Storage.
Is Google no longer offering free unlimited storage to universities? ›
Beginning on November 1, Google will no longer offer free unlimited data storage to higher education institutions. This change will apply to storage in EliApps (Google) Drive, Photos, and shared drives. As a result of this change, on September 30, Yale ITS will implement storage quotas on existing EliApps accounts.
Why is Google storage so full? ›
Similarly, extensive use of Google Docs/Sheets/Slides and other apps can create enough documents to fill up your storage quota and result in you running out of space. Gmail accounts with large numbers of attachments saved in the archive will also run into this issue.
What is the new storage policy for Google? ›
Also starting June 1, any new Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms or Jamboard file will begin counting toward your free 15 GB of allotted storage or any additional storage provided through Google One. Existing files within these products will not count toward storage, unless they're modified on or after June 1.
Is Google for Education no longer free? ›
How much is Google Workspace for Education? Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals is free to qualified educational institutions. Google Workspace for Education Standard, Teaching and Learning Upgrade, Education Plus, and Endpoint Education Upgrade are paid subscriptions.
When did Google stop free unlimited storage? ›
As of June 1, Google has ended its unlimited free storage policy for Google Photos. Google Photos ended its unlimited free storage policy for photos and videos as of June 1. Now any new photos and videos you upload will count toward the free 15GB of storage that comes with every Google account.
What happens when Google storage subscription ends? ›
If your storage plan is canceled or expires
If you cancel your storage plan, you'll lose all additional storage for your account. At the end of your billing cycle, you may be over quota. If you're over your storage quota for 2 years, all the content that counts toward your storage quota may be deleted.
When did Google stop increasing storage? ›
Google shook up the email business when Gmail launched in 2004 with much more free storage than rivals were providing at the time. It boosted the storage cap every couple of years, but in 2013 it stopped.
