Google’s announcement on rebranding its productivity and collaboration toolset was back in October 2020, and triggered both a wave of excitement and trepidation across its users. G Suite, now Workspace, has been the go-to solution of many small business owners for communication, organization, and file storage. The last, in particular, was a huge selling point of G Suite for business owners.
However, it looks like things are about to change with Workspace. Let’s find out more below.
G Suite to Workspace: Is It Goodbye to Unlimited Storage?
G Suite offers three plans for its users: Basic, Business, and Enterprise. Business and Enterprise users are given access to unlimited storage if they purchase five or more seats. If they buy less than five seats, storage space would be limited to 1TB per user.
Workspace, on the other hand, offers four plans: Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, and Enterprise. Business Plus was introduced as an option for business owners who may need more from the plan but aren’t ready to go for the Enterprise.
In contrast to G Suite’s offerings, Workspace doubles (and even quintuples) the storage allocated per seat in its Business Standard and Business Plus plans for those with less than five users. That’s great news—until you realize that the unlimited storage option for five or more seats is noticeably absent.
So, what does this mean for business owners who’ve been relying on G Suite’s storage for storing and safekeeping their files? Fortunately, David Gewirtz of ZDNet went out of his way to try to get some clear answers from the Google team.
When will the changes take place?
According to our research:
- 15. Jan --> Last chance to secure the old G-Suite package for one more year (we can help!).
- 31. Mar --> Companies that missed the 15. Jan deadline will be migrated to Workspace.
With Workspace, unlimited storage seems to be a thing in the past.
The responses from the Google team were far from reassuring, but they insisted that Enterprise users who need more storage can ask for it at no additional cost. For Business Standard and Business Plus, the allocation remains fixed at 2TB and 5TB per user, respectively.
Unlimited storage seems to be out of the question now, since the Google team claims that only a relatively small number of organizations really need it.
G Suite Business users can still access unlimited storage in their plan—for now.
The Google team also mentioned that they’re offering a greater variety of editions with more granular differentiation in Workspace. However, storage limits, based on their updated plan offerings, will now be imposed on Business users migrating from G Suite to Workspace.
The question about whether the migration is mandatory or optional for G Suite Business users wasn’t answered. Neither was the question on what happens to your data over 2TB or 5TB once you do migrate to Workspace.
That said, it seems like users can still access unlimited storage via their G Suite Business plan for now. But, of course, you need to prepare your next steps, particularly if the change to Workspace would cause you storage capacity concerns. With Google’s rebranded suite, it seems like there's no more unlimited storage.
Keeping your price range as you move to Workspace
For most G Suite users, this will not be a downgrade, but there will be some changes in features (source).
Changes from G Suite Basic to Business Starter
- Chat: users won’t be able to accept chat invitations automatically
- Endpoint management: setting up Android devices or selectively distributing apps to those devices won’t be possible
- Sharing capabilities: links or files will be allowed to be shared outside of the organization
Changes from G Suite Business to Business Standard
- Storage will be 2 TB per user. Storage promotions prior to downgrading will be kept. Any other purchased storage won’t be automatically restored. For more, check Prevent storage restrictions.
- Google Vault: you won’t be able to access the service anymore, whether or not you had it before upgrading. Messages and files won’t be protected by holds and retention rules. All data deleted prior to 30 days will be immediately removed from Google and without possibility of recovery. For more, check Prevent loss of data.
- Data location: you won’t be able to choose geographic locations for your data.
- Meeting: limit of 150 participants to video conferences
- Calendar: Rooms that decline invitations won’t be replaced, and if all attendees decline, rooms will not automatically be released. Admins won’t be able to clear room calendars or put them in maintenance mode. There won’t be default durations for events.
- Endpoint management— setting up Android devices or selectively distributing apps to those devices won’t be possible
- Sharing capabilities: links or files will be allowed to be shared outside of the organization
Let Sastrix Help You with Your Options
- For Annual/Fixed-Term plans, the current G Suite subscription will be unaffected until you reach the renewal date
- If you are currently on a monthly Flexible Plan, you can reach out to us, and we will assure a smooth transition
We can help you go over options, like whether to freeze your G Suite accounts for another year or to upgrade to Workspace now and maximize discounts. Get in touch with us today!
