These updates and timeline are written as of 2/17/21
Google Workspace will stop unlimited, free storage starting July 2022
During the Learning with Google Event on February 17th, Google Workspace announced significant changes coming to unlimited cloud storage. Unlimited cloud storage was previously available for G Suite for Education organizations. Starting in July 2022, schools will be given 100TB of combined Drive, Gmail, and Photos storage for free. After you’ve reached the max storage allocation per domain (100TB), you will need to curb your cloud storage usage or procure a paid Google Workspace edition. Since the change is scheduled for July 2022, there is ample time to plan for the impact. Google expects this will only impact 1% of organizations. That doesn’t mean you should not review your data storage hygiene as it may have a future impact on your organization.
The storage is total for the entire organization, not by individual users. Vault storage is not counted in the storage limitation. The total amount of cloud storage allocated to Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals organizations is 100TB. If you are current subscribers of G Suite Enterprise for Education (now Google Workspace for Education Plus), you will get an additional 20gb of storage per student license. The new editions launching on April 14th will also receive additional storage. The Teaching and Learning Upgrade will provide an additional 100gb per staff licenses and will be available by staff licenses ordered by the organization.
After determining your organization’s total storage volume, make a plan so you are not caught off guard when the 100TB storage limits are imposed. Amplified IT can help you determine how best to monitor high storage users, decide if you need to make storage allocation adjustments, and will provide a guide to mitigate the overuse of cloud storage. In addition to the support being offered by Amplified IT, we are working on tools to provide visibility and promote better storage management on your domain. Stay tuned to our blog for more details or subscribe to our monthly newsletter.
GUIDE: What can you do now to plan for July 2022?
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Check out Google’s Guide to assist with understanding the storage allocation or your domain with this storage indicator. Customers with paid versions of Google Workspace (Standard, Teaching & Learning Upgrade, and Plus), will have additional storage space as outlined below.
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Fundamentals – 100TB
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Standard – 100TB
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Teaching and Learning Upgrade – additional 100GB per staff license purchased
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Plus – additional 20GB per student license purchased
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Grab Amplified IT’s Getting Google Workspace Usage Guide to review top storage users. If you are a GAM user, check out our additional Reducing Google Workspace Storage Usage Guide with GAM Guide to help reduce your organization’s overall cloud storage.
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After you Identify your top storage users, provide them with options to have them reduce storage. If you need help getting started with communicating the change to your stakeholders, grab a copy of our end-user instruction template here.
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Review your Admin Console settings and Acceptable Use Policies. Amplified IT recommends K-12 organizations turn OFF Google Photos as a part of the Audit process. Also, consider leveraging Shared Drives to cut back on unnecessary hoarding of files in multiple locations. Create a workflow process for requesting Shared Drives to avoid sprawl and limit the creation of Shared Drives to IT only where possible. Review your acceptable use policy and determine how you will communicate the storage limitations to your end-users.
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Don’t ignore it. Schedule calendar reminders now for a periodic check-in to determine progress. Even if you determine that your domain hasn’t yet reached or exceeded its storage limits, it’s still a good idea to set a reminder to talk about data retention policies with your organization’s stakeholders. You want to ensure you instruct your staff to purge unnecessary files over the summer months and give yourself plenty of time to get the message out prior to July 2022.
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Sign up and watch Google Workspace for Education: Changes with Storage. During the event, the Amplified IT team unpacked the storage announcement, what it means for schools, and how to evaluate your current status when it comes to Workspace storage. This event was recorded and can be viewed after March 3rd.
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If you still need help, engage Amplified IT’s support team to do it for you with our Google Workspace for Education Storage Insights Support Stack Engagement, which consumes 5 hours of direct support. We can provide a sortable list of file usage by user and file type, document total usage and top users, and assist with GAM commands to remediate any issues highlighted. Support contracts are also available as a part of the Google Service Offer (GSO); review our page to see if you qualify for the offer. Also, email support@amplifiedit.com if you are a current support customer and would like to commit a portion of your support contract to receive storage insights.
Whether you are looking for a way to mitigate excessive storage practices yourself, or you are looking for support from Amplified IT, we recommend getting started well before storage limits are imposed in July 2022. Amplified IT can help you determine how best to monitor high storage users, decide if you need to make storage allocation adjustments, and will provide a guide to mitigate the overuse of cloud storage.
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Catherine Weers
Onboarding & Engagement Consultant -
About the Author:
Catherine lives in Virginia Beach, walking distance to the Chesapeake Bay where she is Amplified IT’s Google for Education Onboarding and Engagement Consultant. Catherine joined the Amplified IT team in 2017 after serving in public schools for 13 years as a teacher in addition to various technology roles. Her current role as Onboarding and Engagement Consultant allows ample opportunity to empower schools, while sharing best practices to get the most out of the cloud solutions they adopt. In her spare time, you can find her at the beach with her family, likely chasing her 2 young daughters and petting all the dogs.