In 2021, Google announced an end to unlimited storage for the academic community, and their new storage model provided much less free storage to the campus than it was using. In order to ensure that the free storage allocated to CU Boulder could be used for mission-critical functions, the campus's new quota was pooled and shared in a manner that prioritized Google for collaboration, with the primary focus being on teaching and learning.
To ensure we can remain within the new quota, we made significant changes to our service offerings, including eliminating Google Photos and setting individual quotas for Google Drive. At that time, most of the Google storage space was being consumed by non-Google file types (e.g., Microsoft documents, PDFs, videos, photos). Over the course of several months, OIT directly emailed users of Google Photos, Google Drive and Shared Drives to provide guidance on how to download and relocate the files they wished to keep and how to best utilize OIT's recommended storage options.
Reviewing files in Google Drive and managing your storage
Files that are owned by ineligible users (i.e., former employees, retirees, alumni and students who left CU Boulder) are deleted on a rolling basis. To ensure you don't lose any important files that were owned by these individuals, please review your Google Drive and make copies of the files on a regular basis. OIT recommends several steps to review your data, including:
- Review Recent files and folders to save your most used documents.
- Review your Shared with Me section for all files you have access to.
- Use Google Drive search to find files from specific users you know have left CU.
- Check folders you own and frequently collaborate in to make sure that data won't be lost.
- Manage your Google Drive storage so you stay below your 5GB limit
Visit our review and save page for step-by-step instructions.
Alternative Storage Options
Visit the File Transfer, Storage, and Infrastructure page for more guidance on the appropriate storage options for specific types of data. Depending on the type of data you need to store and the amount of storage you need, there are several options supported by OIT, including the following.
Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365 offers a number of applications that can be leveraged for storage, including OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams.
- OneDrive allows users to keep all files in one location in Microsoft's cloud environment, with the ability to access from a phone, tablet or computer. Use OneDrive's desktop or mobile applications to access up to 5TB storage quota with 250GB maximum file size, version history, and integration with other Microsoft 365 products. Please note: Storage levels are subject to change based on Microsoft's announcement about a move toward pooled storage.
- SharePoint is a Microsoft 365 application that allows users to easily create websites for sharing information and tracking and collaborating on projects.
- Teams is a collaboration platform that also facilitates organization of your team's work, files and key resources using channels.
Learn more about OIT's recommendations for the type of data each application can store on the File Transfer, Storage, and Infrastructure page, or visit the service pages to get started with OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams.
PetaLibrary
The PetaLibrary is a CU Boulder Research Computing service supporting the storage, archiving and sharing of research data. It is available at a subsidized cost to any researcher affiliated with CU Boulder. Learn more about PetaLibrary.
UCB Files
UCB Files provides on-campus, backed-up storage for faculty, staff and student groups. Some features include shared file storage spaces for collaboration, daily data backups, security permissions for your data restricted to your department or university affiliates you authorize, and compatibility with macOS, Windows and Linux. Learn more about UCB Files.
Please note: OIT will continue to support Google Workspace Apps for collaboration, communication and more, but we want to broadly discontinue using Google for storage.
Support
Visit our Google Storage Limitations FAQ page for more information about this project. Additional resources include:
- What to expect from the Google Drive migration
- How to check your current Google Drive storage usage
- What to do if you're over the 5GB quota after migration
- Alumni changes to Microsoft and Google access
- Retiree changes to Microsoft and Google access
- What to expect from the Shared Drive migrations
Contact the IT Service Center at 303-735-4357 or oithelp@colorado.edu for additional assistance.