UW Google Changes Project

Last updated: October 30, 2024

Project Overview

Major changes to UW Google

With the finalization of UW-IT’s contract with Google, the University of Washington has entered into a new four-year agreement to upgrade UW Google from Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals to Google Workspace for Education Plus. UW Google will continue to be offered as a service to the University of Washington, though users and business processes will be impacted due to Google’s service changes.

Key impacts of this change include:

  • All UW Google accounts for Shared UW NetIDs have been deleted
  • All UW Google accounts have a storage limit of 100 GB
  • All UW Google Shared Drives will be fee-based and require UW employee management

Read on for more details about these changes and what steps you may need to take to avoid disruption with UW Google services.

All UW Google accounts have a storage limit of 100 GB

UW Google has moved to a shared storage pool, used by all UW Google accounts. Based on the terms of our new contract and usage analysis done by the UW Google team, we have set a user storage limit of 100 GB per user. According to usage analysis, this limit represents a ceiling far above what most individual users generally require. This limit will continue to be reevaluated as usage patterns change or if the shared storage pool becomes critically low on space.

All UW Google accounts using over 100 GB of storage are considered over quota and subject to deletion.

When your UW Google account is over quota, it means:

  • Users can’t add new files or images to Google Drive.
  • Users can’t create new files in collaborative content creation apps like Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, and Forms. Until they reduce storage use, nobody can edit or copy their affected files or submit forms owned by the user.
  • Users can’t add or backup photos and videos to Google Photos.
  • Note: Normally, users’ ability to send and receive email in Gmail is impacted, however – as a Google Workspace for Education customer, UW Google is exempt from this restriction.
  • Note: Users can still sign in to their Google Workspace account and view and download files.

Learn more about storage limits in UW Google (aka Google Workspace for Education)

Steps you can take: 

All UW Google Shared Drives will be fee-based and require UW employee management

In response to the changes implemented by Google, UW Google Shared Drives are now a fee-based service. The UW has subsidized up to 100 GB of storage for individual Shared Drives for the current year, but please note this is subject to a yearly review process and may change. For any Shared Drive over the 100 GB storage limit, information on storage tiers, quotas, and rates are available on the Google Shared Drive Service Offering page.

Shared Drives also now require a current UW employee in the Manager role who will be responsible for risk management, records management, data privacy, and budget approval reasons. UW employees must use their UW email address (@uw.edu) in the Manager role; non-UW email addresses, including personal @gmail.com addresses, are not sufficient.

Starting August 27, 2024, all UW Google Shared Drives using over 100 GB of storage WITHOUT budget (Worktag) information on file with UW-IT will be considered over quota. On November 5, 2024, all over quota UW Google Shared Drives will be subject to deletion.

When a UW Google Shared Drive is over quota, it means:

  • You can’t upload new files or images to the Shared Drive, or create new files in collaborative content creation apps like Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, and Jamboard
  • Nobody can edit or copy files in the Shared Drive
  • Note: You can still access the Shared Drive and delete & download files

Steps you can take:

Project timeline

Upcoming Changes

November 5, 2024 — All over quota UW Google accounts and over quota UW Google Shared Drives will be subject to deletion.

Click here for project changes to date

FAQs

How do I know if I am impacted?

Personal UW NetID Google account approaching 100 GB storage quota

UW-IT will contact UW NetIDs with personal UW Google accounts exceeding 80 GB of storage via email, with more instructions and next steps. If you are not using over 100 GB of storage, no action is required.

Learn how to manage data stored in your UW Google account

Shared UW NetID with a UW Google account

UW-IT will contact UW NetIDs that are owners and/or admins for Shared UW NetIDs with UW Google accounts via email, with more instructions and next steps. Please make sure the accounts listed as owners and administrators are configured to receive email.  If you are using a UW Group to define administrators, please make sure to enable either “UW Google Apps” or “Exchange email” on the UW Group and allow emails sent to the group from help@uw.edu.

If the UW Google account is no longer needed, the owner should remove provisioning of UW Google services for the account using the Provisioning Request Tool at https://provision.uw.edu/

Restricted Google Shared Drive

Shared Drives are subject to deletion when there is no currently employed UW Employee’s UW Google account (@uw.edu) in the Manager role.

UW-IT will contact UW Google accounts and other Google accounts (e.g. consumer @gmail.com accounts) that are members of Google Shared Drives that will be restricted and then deleted according to the Shared Drive deletion policy.

Can UW-IT help me move my data?

We are developing documentation to assist impacted UW Google users with self-migration. Unfortunately, due to limited resources, UW-IT is unable to offer individualized data migration consulting or assistance at this time. Your department’s IT group is your best resource for assistance and recommendations.

UW-IT is currently working with vendors to determine the feasibility of providing a tool to migrate data from UW Google to an alternative repository. We will communicate about any available solutions as soon as possible.

UW employees can access UW Google account storage use information via Productivity Platforms Stats (aka PPLAT Stats) for UW Google accounts of UW employees and Shared UW NetIDs to help plan UW Google migrations.

Alternatives to UW Google for Shared UW NetIDs

For those impacted by the Google Changes Project who have determined that UW Google services will no longer meet their needs, the link below provides information on an alternative solution:

Access UW Google account storage use information

We are providing access to UW Google account storage use information for UW Google accounts of UW employees and Shared UW NetIDs. This data is available via Productivity Platforms Stats (aka PPLAT Stats). Access to PPLAT Stats is restricted to UW employees only and data should not be shared with anyone other than a UW employee needing it for their job responsibilities. This data also should not be shared outside of the UW.

Click here to request access to PPLAT Stats

UW Google changes to date

The following UW Google changes have been made to date:

Why did Google make these changes?

We can only speculate that the cost of offering unlimited storage to their customers drove these changes by Google. Most users in higher education use the platform for everyday collaboration using shared documents, though a small percentage of users have capitalized on the previous “free and unlimited” nature of the product to meet high-capacity storage needs, leading to exponential growth in overall data storage. Some examples of these uses include:

  • Large video libraries
  • Departmental backups
  • Machine images
  • Massive research data sets, often produced by data streams from technical instruments

It is worth mentioning that individuals and groups that have used UW Google to meet their high-capacity storage needs have done nothing wrong. However, we believe this usage did inform Google’s decision to end their offer of unlimited storage. Google now indicates that it intends Google Workspace for Education to meet the needs of “everyday collaboration.” For high-capacity storage usage, Google offers storage services through its Google Cloud Platform (GCP), similar to other cloud storage offerings such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure.

Additional Information

Changes to funding of UW Google

UW-IT has offered many iterations of UW Google to campus since 2008. Since that time, the costs to support and maintain infrastructure for providing Google services have been centrally funded. This funding, however, did not include the purchase of Google services above the “free” level of Google’s education offering.

However, in early 2021, Google announced significant changes to their education offering, discontinuing “G Suite for Education” and replacing it with “Google Workspace for Education“. Alongside this name change came additional changes to technology, policy, and licensing. Notably, Google announced that their Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals offering would no longer offer unlimited storage and would instead offer a significantly reduced level of storage. Google also announced that the use of shared and business accounts (aka Shared UW NetIDs) with Google Workspace for Education was prohibited.

After several months of negotiation, in late 2021 UW-IT signed a four-year contract with Google for Google Workspace for Education Plus, which grants the UW a significant increase in our total shared storage for UW Google (though still not unlimited), along with several other administrative and technical improvements.

Resources

Help

Please contact the UW-IT Technology Service Center at help@uw.edu or 206-221-5000 with questions about the UW Google Changes Project.