Storage Project

Why is the Berkeley Google service changing?

Google is eliminating the free and unlimited storage offering that they have provided to the K-12 and higher education community along with their rebranding from Google G Suite for Education to Google Workspace Education. We currently store 11.2 PB of data in our entire Google Workspace enterprise environment, and we will need to reduce our storage to below 2.6 PB or the university will be charged significant fees. We will have until...

What do I need to do now?

Do

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

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

Just like on your computer, you need to empty trash in order for the...

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.

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

Box

To see the usage in your Box account, go to https://berkeley.app.box.com/account, then scroll down to "Account Details" and look for "Storage Used"...

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.

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.