Alternative Storage Options

The bconnected team has compiled some recommendations to help you adapt to storage limits. This page will be updated as we gather more information about options.

If You Want to Stay in Google

Individual Accounts and SPAs can Request an Increase

If you have a 25 GB or 50 GB storage limit, you can request an increase up to 150 GB. There are no increases or exceptions for individual or SPA accounts above 150 GB.

Shared Drives

We have two options to keep your data in Google using Shared Drives, with very specific requirements.

Passthrough Pay Option

We offer a passthrough pay option, meaning you pay for additional storage directly to our reseller, and we arrange for the additional storage to be applied to a Shared Drive (or a few).

  • Additional storage is only offered at $1,440 annually for 10 TB of storage. There are no other smaller quantities available to purchase. You can purchase multiple blocks of 10 TB.
  • Additional paid storage can only be applied to Shared Drives. We can also split each 10 TB block up to 10 Shared Drives, in whole TBs only.
  • When you decide you would like to pursue the Passthrough Pay Option, please email us at google-storage-project@berkeley.edu. Let us know you want to use the Passthrough Pay Option. We need to know the name of your destination Shared Drive(s), and we also need to know which accounts (email addresses) will be moving content into the Shared Drive and therefore will reduce their storage below their storage limit.
  • Once you've received confirmation that your Shared Drive capacity has been increased to the paid limit, you can move all your content into the Shared Drive.

Expanded Shared Drives

Expanded Shared Drives are available for free, with either a 150 GB or 1 TB maximum capacity. Expanded Shared Drives are available first-come-first-served until we can evaluate the ratio of demand vs. allocation availability. We can only offer one 1 TB Expanded Shared Drive per unit/group, or per 40 employees, whichever makes the most sense for your request. 150 GB Expanded Shared Drive availability is more flexible.

  • Expanded Shared Drives are available primarily for department or unit use. 
  • The content must be collaborative documents and content that needs to persist: it should continue to be available regardless or who joins or leaves the university.
  • Research data sets, and backups/archives of any kind are not eligible for Expanded Shared Drive storage.
  • 1 TB Expanded Shared Drives will be approved for collaborative content that needs to persist, and equal consumption across all the departments and units  on campus will be considered before approval.
  • 150 GB Expanded Shared Drives are not limited by equal consumption - they will be approved for collaborative content that needs to persist and are limited to one per unit/group.
  • If you'd like to request an Expanded Shared Drive, please complete this form. 

Other Recommended Actions

Deletion

  • Remove unneeded files and empty the trash. Content in the trash still counts against your storage limit.

  • Move any personal non-academic, non-work related files out of UC Berkeley storage accounts. 

  • See Reduce your content quickly for detailed guidance.

UC Berkeley Backup or Archive Alternatives

UC Berkeley Box

  • For content that is in active use (meaning it's viewed or edited at least once a year)

  • Total content amount less than ~2 TB
  • If you are storing research content that meets the above requirements but need more space, please request a quota increase. Please make sure to include information about your content (frequency of access, amount of content) so it's easier to approve.

Not Recommended

Google Drive

  • Google Drive is in a reduction process, meaning significant amounts of content should not be added to the service. Google Drive is not an effective service for the storage of research data or backups/archives.

Hard disk, tape, or network attached storage

  • The bConnected team does not recommend migrating backup or archive data to hard disk, tape, or network attached storage due to lack of replication, physical placement in a earthquake/fire/power-outage zone, and risks related to low quality hardware.

Other Storage Services

External Services 

  • There are other third-party vendors not currently contracted with UC Berkeley which provide backup and archive services. Third party services are not appropriate to use, including personal Google accounts. The relevant policies are UC’s IS-3 Policy and UC Procurement Policies.