Shared drives rolling out to Google Workspace Business Starter next month

Abner Li | Aug 26 2024 - 4:57 pm PT

In May of 2023, Google announced that the Workspace Business Starter tier was switching to pooled storage, with shared drives set to launch next month.

Instead of per-user storage (30 GB), Google Workspace Business Starter now offers pooled storage. An organization’s storage total will be “30 GB times the number of End Users,” with admins able to set per-user storage limits.

Google said it made this change to allow for shared drives that offer:

Easy discoverability: Less time spent requesting access to files and searching for relevant documents with all of your team’s files in one place.
Files are forever: All content stays put — even when collaborators or team members leave, your content won’t.
Easy collaboration: Every member of a shared drive can explore and collaborate in the same files. You can also add users outside your team or organization.
Accessible anywhere: Regardless of location or device, you can always access the files you need most.

Google will be enabling shared drives for Business Starter starting on September 23. All users will be able to create them by default, with an option to “Prevent users in [domain] from creating new shared drives” from Admin console > Menu > Apps > Google Workspace > Drive and Docs > Sharing settings > Shared drive creation. This Admin setting is rolling out now.

Admins can also add/remove members, change access level of members, and restrict moving content externally. However:

Please note that certain admin-level and security controls—like the ability to control access to the items in a shared drive—will not be included in the fundamental version of shared drives for Business Starter.