IT Announcements

Managing Your ÂÌÅ«Ì컨°å Storage: Prepare for Upcoming Changes

March 6, 2026

As previously shared, the University of Alaska is implementing storage limits for ÂÌÅ«Ì컨°å Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 accounts. Since ÂÌÅ«Ì컨°å now pays for the storage it uses, predefined storage amounts have been established in order to responsibly manage these new costs.

Now is the best time for ÂÌÅ«Ì컨°å users who are over their storage limits to reduce their overall storage footprint. In the future ÂÌÅ«Ì컨°å users or departments over their allocations may incur additional costs, so everyone is asked to start practicing good storage hygiene now. Expect details about future pricing to be communicated well in advance of any billing to ensure transparency and provide sufficient time to prepare.

How to Clean Up Your Storage Footprint

Here are some steps ÂÌÅ«Ì컨°å users can take now to tidy up their online storage:

  1. Become familiar with the newly announced storage limits.
  2. Check your overall storage usage to determine if you are over or under your allotted storage amounts.
  3. Managers or directors can request a departmental storage usage report for either or that includes team members and shared drives (if applicable). For information on your team’s usage include first name, last name, and the ÂÌÅ«Ì컨°å username for each member of your department.
  4. All ÂÌÅ«Ì컨°å users are encouraged to read through these tips on ways to reduce their individual and department’s overall storage footprint.
  5. For the purpose of business continuity, any document stored in an individual account (such as My Drive or OneDrive) but shared with an entire department should be moved to an appropriate departmental shared space (such as a Shared Drive, Teams or a SharePoint site) rather than remaining in the individual’s personal storage. <<Learn more about Google Workspace shared storage and Microsoft 365 shared storage. 

Questions?

For additional information visit the ÂÌÅ«Ì컨°å Google Storage Project page FAQs or contact your local IT Help Desk ( • • ) for support.