Ryerson students might soon get unlimited data storage, thanks to an improved online service from Google Apps.
In a bid to win over students and educators, the multinational tech corporation announced the new Google Drive for Education would no longer carry a limit of 30 gigabyte for its users, and just like the previous Drive, it’ll be free of charge.
Ben Schrom, a Google product manager, made the announcement in a blog post last week.
Though Google has not yet been in touch, a Ryerson official said all students and staff will likely get the upgrade.
“They said all Google Apps for Education customers will have unlimited storage at no charge,” said Brian Lesser, Ryerson’s director of computing and communication services.
“Since Ryerson is a Google App for Education customer, we’re assuming it’s coming.”
“It’s great,” he added. “Some departments at Ryerson really needed more storage in order to make effective use of Google Drive — especially departments that wanted to base their workflow around documents in Drive.”
Lesser revealed that the school was looking into purchasing more storage from Google before the company made the announcement.
“Google did offer an additional service called Google Vault at additional cost,” he said. “Now, it looks like we will be getting it for free. That’s really icing on the cake.”
But it is yet unclear when the upgrade will come. Schrom said only that it will take place in the coming weeks.
Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
With the new drive, students will be able to store bigger files and more of them.
The caveat, Lesser said, is that students won’t be able to save huge files at blazing fast speeds.
“At Ryerson, your files have to traverse the school’s connection to the Internet, and you will be competing with others using the same connection,” he said.
The school manages the network to ensure that as one user uploads a massive file, the system isn’t slowed down for everyone else.
Ryerson has been using Google Apps for Education since reaching an agreement with the company about two years ago. The app was officially made available to all students and staff on Oct. 9, 2012.
According to the school’s website, the decision to adopt Google Apps for Education was made after a year-long consultation process that considered issues of privacy, security, accessibility, platform features and cost effectiveness.
By Nitish Bissonauth
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