Cornell's Strategic Storage Initiative was prompted by Google's and Box's 2021 announcements that they were ending unlimited storage. The effort is managed by CIT and works in partnership with a campus advisory group and the IT Governance Council.

The Initiative is a multiyear effort to:

• Change the university's approach to storage services as vendors stop offering unlimited storage.
• Minimize disruption to teaching, research, and Cornell business storage.
• Monitor and react to changes in storage services and pricing.
• Prevent excessive storage growth and the unsustainable costs that would result from it.

Current and Future Timeline

Timing to be determined
Cornell Box accounts will no longer be unlimited. (More information about Box.)

May 2025
Current Box contract ends and a new one will take effect. It has not been established whether the new contract will include unlimited storage.

August 2025
All Cornell Google alumni accounts will need to reduce storage below 5 GB. This includes, but is not limited to, email and Google Drive. Alumni will receive direct communications and clear deadlines for reducing storage on a rolling basis from September 2024 - August 2025 to allow enough time for all accounts to be reduced by summer 2025. 

December 2025
The current Google contract that includes unlimited storage ends. Cornell will have around 325 TB of free storage, and costs will incur for additional storage.

Historical Timeline

June 2022
Caps were applied to faculty, student, and staff Google Drive accounts. The default cap is 15 GB, unless the account had more in it at that time, in which case the cap was set above that level. (More information about faculty, student, and staff storage caps.)

July 2022
Alumni direct communications began.

September 2022
Student direct communications began.

Spring 2023
Students began to be able to choose to use Microsoft 365 email (Outlook).

May 2024
Alumni with Google accounts exceeding 200GB of storage needed to reduce storage below 200GB.