Manage Storage in Google Workspace and Understand Limits

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Google Workspace

Updated January 3, 2003: Clarification on length of grace periods.

With the move to pooled storage across all subscriptions, Google no longer supports legacy options for additional storage for Google Workspace. As such, many individuals and businesses find themselves approaching or exceeding the pooled Google Workspace storage limit for their accounts.

What Happens Next After Reaching The Google Workspace Storage Limit

If you reach or exceed your pooled storage limit, Google gives you a grace period to either reduce the amount of storage used, or to add more pooled storage by changing your subscription.  After the grace period, your account becomes “read-only.” This change impacts your services including being unable to upload files or create new Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, or Forms.

Your grace period is:

  • 14 days if you do not have legacy Additional Storage license(s).
  • 60 days if you have legacy Additional Storage license(s).

You Have Options

You need to either add more Google Workspace storage, or you and your team need to free up storage.

Add More Storage

You have three options for adding more storage.

1 Upgrade.  The easiest way to add storage capacity, and Google’s recommended solution, is to upgrade to the next subscription tier, from Business Starter to Standard; from Business Standard to Plus; from Business Plus to Enterprise Standard.

2 Add Licenses. As an alternative, you can opt to add one or more additional licenses to increase the storage pool.  Both of these solutions will incrementally increase your cost.

3 Add 10 TB of Storage. You can add Additional Storage to Google Workspace subscriptions with pooled storage. The added storage comes in blocks for 10 TB at a cost of $300 per month.  This option is generally too expensive for most small and midsize businesses.

Which option is more cost-effective depends on your current subscription, your number of users, and the amount of storage you want to add.

Free Up Storage

We can recommend several techniques for freeing up storage, each with advantages and disadvantages.

1 Review and remove large or unnecessary files.  Ask each user to go through their “My Drive”. Your Administrator should review your Shared Drives. Be careful not to remove files that may be needed.

2 Review and remove duplicate files. Encourage each user to delete files that have been copied to a Shared Drive, or for which they have multiple copies that are no longer needed.

3 Remove and reduce large emails. Instruct and help users work to through their historical email and delete emails with larger attachments. Verify that the files were saved to My Drive or a Shared Drive. Be careful that the content of the email is no longer needed as well to avoid losing information you might need later on.

4 Move files to other storage. Using Google Cloud you have other storage options. These storage options work well for static needs, such as archiving projects and media (image, audio, video) libraries. Accessing Google Cloud storage requires

5 Move files to local storage. While counter to a Cloud Forward approach, you can move files to local storage. If you  do download the files to local storage before deleting, remember to make sure you protect those files with a backup/recovery solution.

We Can Help with Google Workspace Storage

Our team of small and midsize business cloud experts can and will help you chart your best path forward.  Let us help you assess the effort and cost for your options, and choose the best solution for you and your business. Schedule a call with a Cloud Advisor or send us an email.

About the Author

Chris CaldwellChristopher Caldwell is the COO and a co-founder of Cumulus Global.  Chris is a successful Information Services executive with 40 years experience in information services operations, application development, management, and leadership. His expertise includes corporate information technology and service management; program and project management; strategic and project-specific business requirements analysis; system requirements analysis and specification; system, application, and database design; software engineering and development, data center management, network and systems administration, network and system security, and end-user technical support.

3 Secrets to Avoiding IT Problems

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Problem and SolutionIf you are a sole practitioner, a solopreneur, or the owner of smaller businesses, you face unique technology challenges. You, and businesses like yours, are uniquely dependent on your technology.  Your computer and phone are critical tools without which your business can screech to a halt.  Avoiding IT problems is critical. And yet, you do not have time to be the IT guru. You may not have access to, or the budget for, traditional IT services.

The good news is that you can take steps to avoiding IT problems without overspending.

1 Stay Current

When we say “stay current”, we do not mean spending hours reading and studying the lasted IT advancements and opportunities.  Stay Current means keeping your systems up to date.

  • Make sure you regularly apply Windows (or MacOS) updates.
  • Windows Update should also inform you of firmware updates from your laptop manufacturer.
  • If you are not running cloud-based software that updates automatically, make sure your desktop applications are up to date as well.

Staying current with system and application updates ensures you have the latest system-level security protections in place. It is common for security experts to find “holes” in Windows and applications. Updates fix these risks and reduce the chance of a successful malware, ransomware, or other form of cyber attack.

2 Security CPR

Security CPR is our model for pragmatic protection for your business.

  • Communicate & Educate:
    • Know that even your business is a target;
    • Understand the current nature of cybersecurity risks; and
    • Learn how your behavior can prevent or enable attacks.
  • Protect & Prevent:
    • Deploy security solutions focused on stopping the most common type, and the most damaging, cyber attacks on small businesses.
      • Email advanced threat protection and next-gen endpoint protection, for example, protect you from attacks steal your identity and passwords.
      • Proper DNS configuration can stop cyber attackers from impersonating you or your business.
    • Include low-cost and no-cost solutions like multi-factor authentication (MFA) and local disk encryption to prevent access should an account get compromised.
    • Ensure you meet industry and legal security and privacy regulations and requirements; several states are imposing regulations above and beyond more familiar requirements (PCI, HIPAA, etc.).
  • Respond & Recover:
    • No protection or prevention is perfect.
    • Use affordable services that not only recover your data, but let you continue operating while you recovery.
    • Be prepared to address the customer service, legal, and financial aspects of a successful cyber attack. Cyber Insurance is a key component.

Many of your peers assume that security will be too expensive. They see the press coverage and read the articles, failing to realize that tech media targets larger businesses.  Our Security CPR model focuses on balancing risks, protections, and costs to deliver the best value for your business, and smaller business like yours.

Additionally, the model helps you with avoiding IT problems beyond security and compliance. The same solutions help you minimize the risk of hardware problems and software issues while making it easier to recover should something go wrong.

3 Partner with a Pro

If you are worried that you cannot afford expert IT services, you are not alone.  Most sole practitioners and owners of smaller businesses worry about upfront and on-going IT costs. As a result, you may turn to family, friends, or the “guru” in the blue shirt at the store in the mall. Even if your go-to person is in IT,

  • Do they focus on your needs as a small business?
  • Are they available when needed?
  • Do they plan ahead, or only offer guidance when it is time to make a purchase or after a problem?
  • Are they helping you get the most out of the features and capabilities of your IT services?

It is easy to let concerns about cost get in the way of IT services than can truly help you and your business thrive and grow.

A single IT problem can easily cost more, directly and indirectly, than using IT professionals to plan, manage, and support your business. An unexpected failure or cyber attack can disrupt your business for days, resulting in missed deadlines, lost revenue, unexpected costs, and a damaged reputation. Sound planning and active management prevents problems. The right services are key to avoiding IT problems, keeping you operational, and helping you recover should the unexpected happen.

Focus on value.

The right cloud solutions simplify your IT services. Simple reduces the number of things — hardware, software, services — to learn, manage, and support. Matched with the right guidance, management, and support, the right IT services more than pay for themselves.

How Cumulus Global Can Help You Avoid IT Problems

We build our Essential and Basic Managed Services to meet your needs as a solopreneur or owner of a smaller business. Leverage the cloud; focus on key solutions; Rely on expert guidance, management and support.

Explore how our Managed Cloud Services can help you and your business. Click here to schedule a call with a Cloud Advisor or send us an email. There is no cost and no obligation.

About the Author

Bill Seybolt bio pictureBill is a Senior Cloud Advisor responsible for helping small and midsize organizations with cloud forward solutions that meet their business needs, priorities, and budgets. Bill works with executives, leaders, and team members to understand workflows, identify strategic goals and tactical requirements, and design solutions and implementation phases. Having helped over 200 organizations successfully adopt cloud solutions, his expertise and working style ensure a comfortable experience effective change management. 

 

The #1 Security Solution that Costs You Nothing: Multi-Factor Authentication

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Security KeyWe have all seen and heard the warnings about the ever increasing number of cyber attacks against small business.  More than crypto-ware, small and midsize businesses are targets of other forms for ransomware, impersonation, crypto-mining, and business email compromise attacks. The threats are real, as are the operational and financial risks to your business. Multi-Factor Authentication, or MFA, is an effective, “no cost” solution.

Along with the warnings, you are likely, almost certain, to receive pitches, promos, and offers for a never-ending array of security tools and services.  Like other small and midsize businesses, you lack the bottomless budget. You cannot do it all; you need to prioritize your spending on security products and services with the biggest bang for the buck.  “No Cost” solutions are, of course, the best option when they work.

Protect versus Prevent With Free Multi-Factor Authentication

Some security solutions protect your and your systems, other prevent access and actions.  The difference is important.

Protection solutions help stop attacks from happening.  Services like advanced threat protection and next-gen endpoint protection stop phishing, infecting attachments, and dangerous link attacks by blocking the attack from reaching you or your team.

Prevention solutions stop attackers from successfully accessing your systems and data.  These solutions work after a cyber-attacker has figured out, or purchased, your identity.

In reality, you need both types of solutions. Protection solutions provide the broad shield against targeted and broad scale attacks. Since no protection is perfect, prevention solutions stop the attackers before they can get in and do damage.

“No Cost” Prevention: MFA

The good news is that you can deploy the most effective prevention solution, Multi-Factor Authentication, at “no cost.” We put “no cost” in quotes because, while the basic solution is free, you will need to spend some time setting it up and educating your team.

Multi-Factor Authentication is an authentication method that requires the user to provide two or more verification factors to gain access or entry to a system, application, or other online account or resource.  Most of the applications and systems you use, including Google Workspace and Microsoft 365, include MFA as security feature and option.

These integrated MFA services often provide the second level of verification via SMS message, single-use link, and/or an authenticator app on your smart phone. In general, using an authenticator app is considered more secure than SMS message or single-use link.

As reported by Microsoft in 2019, MFA can block more than 99.9% of account compromise attacks.  If a cyber attacker has your username and password, MFA is the best way to prevent them from getting in and doing harm.

Overcoming Objections with a Free MFA

When putting MFA in place, you may get some pushback or hesitation from your team.

  • MFA does add extra steps when logging in, an inconvenience for your team.
  • As you likely run several apps and systems, your team will need to setup multiple entries in one, or more, authenticator apps.
  • Your team may need to create and save “backup access codes” in case of system or access issues.

While your team may object to the inconvenience, the added effort is reasonable given the level of prevention.

You Can Do More with a Free Multi-Factor Solution

If the number of accounts, passwords, and MFA services is too much, you have options. While they come with a price tag, single sign-on (SSO) and identity and access management (IAM) services can minimize the inconvenience.  Most small and midsize businesses do not see the value given the cost, but it remains an option.

We Can Help

Configuring and managing MFA is part of our Basic, Business, and Premium Managed Cloud Services. We can also help you put MFA in place for your current IT services. For more information, click here to schedule a call with a Cloud Advisor or send us an email.

About the Author

Allen Falcon is the co-founder and CEO of Cumulus Global.  Allen co-founded Cumulus Global in 2006 to offer small businesses enterprise-grade email security and compliance using emerging cloud solutions. He has led the company’s growth into a managed cloud service provider with over 1,000 customers throughout North America. Starting his first business at age 12, Allen is a serial entrepreneur. He has launched strategic IT consulting, software, and service companies. An advocate for small and midsize businesses, Allen served on the board of the former Smaller Business Association of New England, local economic development committees, and industry advisory boards.