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Google Adds Unlimited Storage Space for Students

Google is giving the 30 million students and teachers who already use Google Apps for Education unlimited storage — and it's offering the same deal to anyone whose school wants to sign up for it.

Similar to its Drive for Work that it charges $10 a month for, Google is creating Drive for Education — only it will be free to nonprofit educational institutions, and there are no ads.

"Why lug around piles of paper or overstuffed binders," Google Apps for Education Product Manager Ben Schrom asked, "when every type of document or file can be retrieved from the nearest Chromebook, tablet, smartphone or browser?"

Along with the unlimited cloud-based storage for students, teachers and administrators — which will be rolled out over the next few weeks — before the end of the year, the company will also offer Google Apps Vault, a compliance-focused tool for administrators that will allow them to search through files within the school's domain.

The archiving and discovery tool had been available to schools at a cost, but now it will be free.

Previously, students using Google Apps for Education got 30GB of free storage space, enough for most, but now, along with the unlimited storage space, users can upload individual files up to 5TB in size.

The launch of the new Drive for Education comes on the heels of the August introduction of Classroom, which helps teachers digitally manage their classes.

Schrom said Classroom and Drive for Education "are very complementary."

"Every file that you use in Classroom is shared in Drive," he said. "So, by bulking Drive up, it only improves Classroom."

About the Author

Michael Hart is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and the former executive editor of THE Journal.

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