4/18/23

This is an update to the information we shared previously about Google storage changes.

Google Storage Updates Session - 4/25/23

Click here for a PDF of the presentation

Recap of Google Storage Limitations

  • Google announced that they will no longer be providing unlimited storage to higher ed institutions.

  • As a university, we will need to approach the reality that at no cost, unlimited storage no longer exists for our institution.

  • We have joined a consortium that will allow us to have unlimited Google storage until June 2024, extending the original deadline of December 31, 2022.

  • We are currently paying for pooled storage with Google’s Education Plus license, giving us 359.83TB of storage to use as a university. This license provides The New School with a certain amount of pooled storage per our student full-time equivalent (FTE).

  • A significant university-wide cleanup effort will need to occur over the next year. 

  • We’ve started making moves towards this effort by removing access to certain Google services from inactive and alumni. The next steps will include the full deletion of files that are owned by these accounts, which means if these files are still being used by current faculty, they will be deleted unless the faculty make copies of the files they need.  

  • New policies will need to be implemented including storage quotas, data retention/deletion, account access to Google services, removal of non-person accounts, and new requirements for Google shared drives.

Next Steps

  1. IT will be implementing 25GB storage quotas for the entire university on June 28, 2023. Accounts that have more than 25GB will have a quota added above their storage at that time.

    1. More information on storage quotas can be found here

    2. You can see how much storage you are using and how much space you have before reaching your storage cap on your Drive Storage page

    3. Information on the impact to our community can be found below

  2. There will be a university-wide cleanup effort that will include the deletion of all files owned by inactive or alumni accounts. This means if you have files shared with you from alumni or individuals no longer at the university that you must keep, you will need to make copies of them. 

Timeline

Impacts of Changes

Storage Quotas

Our decision to set the standard quota at 25GB was based on our current Google storage usage. As you can see from the information below, for all of our user groups, the majority of the population is under 25GB of storage and will not see major impacts from a storage quota.

Those who are over the 25GB limit will be provided space above their current usage to ensure that these accounts will continue to be able to use Google Drive services without disruption.

Students: including Active NYC, Active Paris, CPE, Parsons Intensive, Exchange, Certificate, Mannes Prep

Full-Time Faculty

Part-Time Faculty

Staff: including Full-time, Part-time, FT staff who are also FT faculty, FT staff who are also PT faculty, Paris, Contingent, Temporary Workers, and Retired Staff

University-wide Clean up of Inactive and Alumni Accounts
In October 2023, IT will be deleting all drive files owned by inactive and alumni accounts.

This is a crucial step in addressing the storage limits Google has imposed on the university. By deleting alumni and inactive accounts we will be able to remove over 515 TB of storage, moving us closer to a manageable amount of storage.

Prior to removing alumni and inactive account data, it is imperative that current students, faculty, and staff are aware of any files they may continue to need access to whose owner is no longer at the university. Once files are deleted, we will not be able to recover them. 

For more information about Google file ownership and what to do when someone leaves the university, please check out our Google Drive File Ownership Guide.   

Future Plans

As we move forward with the more immediate plans for implementing storage quotas and cleaning up inactive and alumni account data, we are planning for future policies that will have to be implemented. 

A few of these include:

  • Storage quotas for shared drive and additional shared drive request policies

  • Data retention policies

  • Data/account deletion policies

We will be communicating these policies as they are finalized.

How to get support

IT will be offering Google storage management sessions that will go into detail about how you can clean up your Google storage footprint while still maximizing your use of the service. Please register for a session here.

You can also review our FAQ or reach out to IT Central at itcentral@newschool.edu with questions.