The message below was sent on behalf of Information Technology Services. (11/02/2022)
Google Storage Changes at UMSL and UM System
As you may be aware, Google provided Higher Education with Unlimited Free storage, but has changed that policy for Higher Education and has put limits on the amount of storage that we may use. ITS at the campus and the system level has been working to decide the best way forward with our usage of Google storage, and this has resulted in some necessary changes.
The primary change is that we now have quotas set on each user’s Google drive to assist in managing use of Google storage. These quotas are based on each user’s current usage, and while the new quotas will not prevent users from using what they currently have, they will limit how much additional data can be stored to that drive. Over 95% of our users currently have less than 5 Gigabytes stored in Google, and will receive the default 5GB quota. Others over 5GB will receive a quota greater than or equal to their current storage, for example, a user with 16 GB in Google drive now, their new quota will be 20 Gigabytes. Requests to increase the Google storage quota will be considered and approved on a case-by-case basis, however, we have already exceeded our overall storage quota with Google and will have to pay for that extra storage.
The University generally recommends Microsoft Teams and OneDrive solutions for storage and collaboration needs. We have made an investment in Microsoft 365 licensing, which includes ample amounts of storage and additional security tools to assist in the secure storage and sharing of those files. ITS already has reached out to many of our higher-utilization Google users to aid in the transfer of data from Google to Microsoft and will continue to do so.
This does not mean that we are getting rid of Google. There are many users who need to continue to use Google Drive, Docs, Apps and Forms to achieve their educational and business goals. These are great tools to use for educational purposes and for collaboration. However, this does mean that we all need to look at our Google storage differently, to determine the best solutions. It is not recommended to use Google Drive as a backup for other systems’ files. We also recommend you use Microsoft Teams or OneDrive to store and organize your PDF files, Excel spreadsheets and other non-Google files.
We are asking users to help reduce our overall storage by moving any files that do not HAVE to be in Google Drive to a Microsoft Teams drive or a Microsoft OneDrive as time allows over the next few months, and then to delete them from Google. We are also reminding users that your University-provided storage should NEVER be used for personal, non-business related files. UMSL will soon have to pay Google for storage over our quota and with tight budgets, we are trying to use that money as wisely as possible.
Information on using Microsoft OneDrive to store non-shared data can be found at: https://www.umsl.edu/technology/support/faqs/onedrive.html
Information on using Microsoft Teams to store shared data can be found at: https://www.umsl.edu/technology/support/Teams.html