Storage Changes

Google and Box have announced they are changing their service and pricing models for educational institutions. These new models end unlimited storage for all accounts. UC Berkeley will be transitioning to these new pricing and storage models between now and April 2023.

Town Halls

Please join us for monthly virtual town halls discussing these changes:

  • Wednesday, March 17, 1-2pm

  • Wednesday, April 21, 1-2pm
  • Wednesday, May 19, 1-2pm
  • ...and on the third Wednesday of every month from 1-2pm.

View instructions for joining our upcoming Town Halls.

Project updates mailing list

We have created an announcement mailing list, for anyone interested in keeping up to date with the Box Service Changes project. Any current member of the UC Berkeley community can subscribe by:

Presentations and Updates

(In reverse-chronological order, UC Berkeley login required)

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Why are these services changing?

There is a larger industry trend towards eliminating “unlimited” offerings for cloud-based services. This has its roots in the fact that, unlike 5-10 years ago, storage costs are no longer rapidly decreasing. In fact, they have leveled off or increased in recent years.

 

2. How is Berkeley responding?

These changes from Google overlap with the similar changes Box announced last year, so we are taking a bigger picture look at the overall file storage and collaboration strategy for the entire campus. Our primary goal is to find the most cost effective solutions for storing and preserving the important data that is the lifeblood of the University, while maintaining the abilities of individuals and teams to continue to work productively in service of the University’s teaching, research, and public service mission.

 

3. How will we make decisions about these services?

Google and Box are both part of the campus’ Productivity Suite offering; any changes will be a part of our ongoing discussions with the campus about the governance and funding of Productivity Suite.

 

4. Why is the Berkeley Google service changing?

Google will eliminate the free and unlimited storage offering that they have provided to the K-12 and higher education community for nearly a decade along with their rebranding from Google G Suite for Education to Google Workspace Education. They will now offer tiers of free and paid service offerings for education customers.

5. Why is the Berkeley Box service changing?

Box is dramatically increasing prices for educational institutions, and will no longer offer unlimited storage to customers. Due to this change, UC Berkeley (along with many other higher education institutions) will need to dramatically scale back our usage of Box. We will be working with the campus community, especially the users with the most data stored on Box, to find or design alternative solutions. 

 

6. How do I see my current storage usage in Google and Box?

Google

To see the breakdown of usage in your Google account, go to https://drive.google.com/settings/storage

To see all the files in your Google MyDrive sorted by usage, go to https://drive.google.com/drive/quota

7. What do I need to do now?

Do

  1. Clean up: Delete any files, folders or email that you are confident you no longer need from Google and Box. 

  2. Empty your Box and Google Trash: Deleted files in Google and Box are moved to the trash in Google and Box. 

8. What’s the project plan?

The UC Berkeley Storage Changes Transition team will work to make the change as seamless as possible for the campus community. This is the tentative high-level plan for the next three years. This plan will change as the project progresses. 

Year 1: March 2020-March 2021

  • Discovery Phase - Box

    • Understand how people are using Box;

    • Conduct outreach with those most heavily impacted by the change;