Data quotas, archiving old email messages part of digital storage overhaul | University Times

By SHANNON O. WELLS

For those reluctant to part with past email exchanges and inclined — or needing — to squirrel away work-related documents in seemingly bottomless digital storage realms, change is coming this year. 

“In June of 2026 we will start archiving old email,” said Donald Grimm, engagement leader in Pitt’s Information Technology department. “Old email, meaning more than 18 months old — that will be put into an online archive folder within your Outlook (program) that does not count towards our storage limit.

“It’ll still be available to you, but you will have to use an Outlook client in order to see it.”

By the following summer in 2027, Pitt employees who use OneDrive and SharePoint digital platforms will have a data storage quota: 250 gigabytes for OneDrive, one terabyte for SharePoint, Grimm noted. “Then we will also begin limiting sponsored account usage.”

Grimm shared information on the coming changes during a presentation to the Senate Research Committee at its December meeting. Grimm, who works primarily in the schools of the Health Sciences and research areas, is charged with facilitating and coordinating items between Pitt Digital and the  schools, units and departments.

The change is prompted by Microsoft ending the unlimited storage plan that Pitt uses, primarily for OneDrive and SharePoint, effective Sept. 1, 2026, leaving the University with a two petabyte, or 2,000 terabyte, storage limit.

“That number is based on the number of licenses that we use, which is the number of primary accounts that we have,” Grimm said, noting that the current OneDrive/SharePoint storage from Microsoft is about 6,000 terabytes, or six petabytes. “If we make no changes of everything as is, then on Sept. 1, Microsoft will begin charging the University about $1.4 million (for) the four-petabyte overage.

“We’re looking at different ways of how we can get those numbers down, get underneath that cap, ultimately, but that’s going to be a struggle.”

Grimm acknowledged that about 80% of the information could be “just stale data,” or data not accessed for more than 18 or 24 months. “One of the things we’re going to stress is (to) get rid of that data that’s just not needed to be stored anymore. … It’s obvious that’s just going to keep growing. We’re just going to keep storing and storing more data.”

Pitt currently has 3.5 petabytes in OneDrive, 1.8 petabytes in SharePoint and about 600 terabytes in Pitt’s Microsoft Exchange email server, he noted.  

Communicating details of the new data storage plan has begun, starting with information from Provost Joe McCarthy’s office and Mark Henderson, chief information officer, that was shared with Pitt’s academic leadership.

The five-member Engagement Leader Team is now reaching out to financial and associate deans within schools to present the plan at a broader level, Grimm said. Individual schools and departments will then be officially notified. 

Among new tools available is a Tableau Dashboard that tells each employee how much storage space they’re consuming in OneDrive and SharePoint. “(You) can dive down and look into the data itself as well,” he said, noting data levels can be examined on individual, departmental and school levels.

Archiving of emails older than 18 months into an online folder will begin this June. Those don’t count toward Pitt’s storage limit.

“That’s why we’re putting that there. It’ll still be available to you, but you will have to use an Outlook client in order to see it,” Grimm said. “You will not be able to use an alternative mail client, say Apple Mail, to be able to view that online archive.”

By July 2027, the new storage quota will go into place: 250 gigabytes for OneDrive, one terabyte for SharePoint.

“Then we will also start limiting sponsored account usage. Sponsored accounts by default get an A1 Microsoft license, which there’s no charge for and does not apply to any storage limits. If a sponsor account needs (A5), which is the full Microsoft suite of packages, they get OneDrive access, SharePoint access, but that sponsored account license is not included in our overall storage,” he said.

In other words, if an A5 license is added to a sponsored account, the quota stays the same. “The quota that Microsoft will provide us, that two petabytes, is solely on primary accounts, only for the University.”

On Sept. 1, Microsoft will begin enforcing overage charges. “What everybody’s going to see on Sept.1, if you are over those quota sets — 250 gigabytes for OneDrive, one terabyte for SharePoint — you will be able to read your data from OneDrive,” Grimm noted, “but (won’t) be able to edit or add to it (without purchasing) more storage from Microsoft.

“You would have to go into PantherExpress, into the software store, and buy that.”

The annual cost for OneDrive storage will be $360 per terabyte for anything above the 250 GB limit, which would be arranged on an individual or departmental basis. “That will open your OneDrive back up.”

Grimm encouraged faculty and staff members to look at their OneDrive usage “and just start eliminating what you do not need,” he said, noting that Pitt Digital will not set retention policies saying research data “can only be kept for so many years.

“We’re not going to set those on a global level. We leave that to you as a department, as a unit, to set any kind of those pieces from there.”

Alternatives to Microsoft currently available include cloud storage for “storing data that you rarely need, meaning it’s data you can put out in the cloud, either Azure or Amazon Web Services (AWS) cold storage. You don’t need to access it all the time,” he said. “You just need to know that it’s available if you ever need it.”

That storage costs $12 per terabyte per year. Accessing data might take between 24 and 48 hours of turnaround time for Azure or AWS to bring it out of cold storage.

Also, the cloud-based Azure Files, which can be accessed directly from a desktop computer, costs $140 to $220 per terabyte annually, depending on how often it’s accessed. Enterprise Storage, known as Dell Isilon, is available this month at a new annual cost of $175 per terabyte, Grimm noted.

Across the University, Grimm said about 2,200 individuals are currently going over the 250-gigabyte limit, about half of those coming from the Health Sciences. “Health Sciences is obviously the biggest consumer of Microsoft data storage because of the research piece of it.”

With information and guidance on storage options offered starting in January, Grimm said the goal is not to upset “business flow.”

“We’re not going to get it under that two-petabyte cap, but we can get it back to a reasonable level and then find other storage solutions, if it meets your needs, and go from there.”

Penny Morel, professor in the Department of Immunology and division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, expressed concerns that the storage changes haven’t been clearly communicated and about a possible conflict in being required to store sometimes large amounts of data for seven years.  

“Those data don’t necessarily get used much, but they have to be kept in case somebody raises a question and wants to see the raw data,” she explained. “… We’re doing a lot of experiments that generate large data sets … and it often takes several months to fully analyze those data sets.

“It seems like the plan is that Pitt is not willing to pay any of these extra costs,” but rather are going on to the primary investigator.

Grimm affirmed that Pitt Digital will not take on “that $1.4 million cost. Any cost that’s needed for storage will be put on the individual or the department or the unit.

“Regardless of where your data goes, there is going to be a cost for storage,” he said. “Anything above that 250 gigabyte (or) terabyte SharePoint needs will be a cost. I mean, that’s the hard fact. … It wasn’t too long ago, we moved from Box (Cloud Storage) and then moved everything to OneDrive. And now we’re having the exact same conversation with Microsoft.”

Responding to Morel’s question about Pitt creating its own data-storage facility, Rob Rutenbar, senior vice chancellor for research, noted that the “equipment is expensive. It doesn’t last forever. People keep wanting bigger, better faster.

“I have to depreciate that stuff and buy a new version of the gear every four or five years, and it’s several million bucks every time I do it,” he said. “We figure out what the minimum viable charge is (with which) we can keep the operation afloat. Numbers of a couple hundred bucks a terabyte or something for several chunks of terabytes, or some fraction of a petabyte, it’s kind of what you got.”

Shannon Wells is a University Times reporter. Reach him at shannonw@pitt.edu.

Have a story idea or news to share? Share it with the University Times.

Follow the University Times on Twitter and Facebook.