UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State's free Google Workspace for Education accounts will no longer support unlimited storage beginning in January. Instead, the University will be allocated a shared storage pool for all users. This change is being driven by Google, which is eliminating the unlimited free storage.
In preparation for the reduced storage capacity, the Penn State IT Office 365 team has been working with Google Drive power users to help reduce the volume of their stored data. The team also is assisting, as needed, with migrating data to other storage options, including Microsoft OneDrive.
"Reducing redundant services is an important way we can continue to be good stewards of the tuition dollars that our students and their families pay for a high-quality Penn State education," said Jen Stedelin, vice president for information technology and chief information officer. "OneDrive is included at no additional cost as part of our Microsoft contract, and is available to all students, faculty and staff across the University."
Penn State IT is now encouraging all students, faculty and staff to visit Google Drive - Storage, review their stored data, and delete unneeded files. In addition, users can migrate their data to OneDrive or an alternative storage option. One available migration tool is Google Takeout, which can be used to export stored Google services data.
Anyone who has questions or needs migration assistance should email googleworkspace@psu.edu.