Google Extends Storage Service To Apps Users

Google will extend its user managed storage service to Google Apps users in the next couple of days, as a recent software update wiped out the Gmail accounts of more than 150,000 users.

User Managed Storage is a service that has allowed users to purchase more storage space when they exceed the allotted quota on their personal Google Accounts.

The service offers 20 GB of storage space for $5 per year and goes up to 1 TB storage space for $256 per year.

Over the next couple of days, we will be rolling this service out for users of Google Apps accounts as well, allowing the purchase of extra storage for Google Docs, Picasa Web Albums, and photos from Blogger, Gaurav Jain, Product Manager, Google Apps wrote on the Google blog.

Jain said any of the above products that is over its storage quota can use the extra storage on a first-come, first-served basis.

Users that upload lots of files to Google Docs, sync their Office documents to the cloud using Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office, or store and share pictures using Picasa or Blogger can now expand the storage space available for these files.

The price for User Managed Storage is the same as for personal Google Accounts:

The User Managed Storage service is enabled or disabled by the domain administrator, and the end user purchases additional storage using his or her Google Checkout account.

Additional storage added using User Managed Storage cannot be pooled or transferred to another Google Apps user account and cannot be used for Gmail.

Data stored using User Managed Storage is subject to the same ownership policy as other data in the Google Apps account, the blog post added.