Microsoft, the major software and cloud brand, has announced that it will reduce the free cloud storage space offered to education customers starting August 1, 2024. The decision is part of Microsoft's strategy to achieve its sustainability and sustainability goals. Reduce your carbon footprint.
In August 2023, Microsoft announced that it would be making changes to its online productivity services for education customers. Microsoft 365 for Education plans have new limits on the amount of cloud storage for each user and institution.
Microsoft has now outlined these new storage limits in a blog post. It reads as follows:
Sent by Microsoft
For education plan customers with Microsoft 365 or Office 365, all school tenants will receive 100 TB of free group storage on OneDrive, SharePoint and Exchange from their next contract renewal, but not before August 1, 2024, plus 50 GB or 100 GB of bundled storage per paying user for A3 or A5 subscriptions. Additionally, starting February 1, 2024, Office 365 A1 (free subscription) users are limited to a maximum of 100 GB of OneDrive storage per user within the school tenant's 100 TB shared storage.
The company added that it will provide its education customers with a suite of free tools to help them visualize current storage space usage and usage so they can better prepare their files. Microsoft stated that the vast majority of schools (99.96%) are well below their storage allocation.
Microsoft also explained the reasons for these changes:
With the move to the cloud, stored files, data, and unused accounts increased significantly over time as more stored files and data proliferated without an end-of-life plan. This situation is unsustainable from a cost and environmental perspective and puts educational institutions and their students at risk of a data breach. Additionally, Microsoft announced that it will discontinue licensing for its Office 365 A1 Plus plan, which provided education customers with limited free access to Office apps and services, on August 1, 2024. Microsoft will continue to offer the Office 365 A1 plan for free.
Why is Microsoft taking this action?
Minimize your impact on the environment
Microsoft explains that this action aims to promote more responsible and efficient use of its cloud resources, which have a significant impact on the environment. In fact, the data centers that host Microsoft's cloud services consume large amounts of energy and water and emit greenhouse gases.
Stored files that are no longer used impact our carbon footprint, as more than half of the data stored by companies is useless. Storing this “dark” data takes up space on servers and leads to increased electricity consumption, accounting for 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 alone. Microsoft is committed to both ensuring the security and privacy of school and student data and reducing our collective carbon footprint. Our data centers are already built to meet the strictest environmental standards. With this change, education customers can do their part. Microsoft aims to become a carbon-negative, water-positive and zero-waste company by 2030. To achieve these goals, Microsoft is investing in renewable energy, carbon capture and storage technologies, energy efficiency, reducing water consumption and recycling waste.
Microsoft also launched Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability, an Azure-based platform that enables companies to measure and improve their environmental performance. Microsoft wants to help its customers and partners reduce their carbon footprint and contribute to the fight against climate change.
Reduce security risks
With the move to the cloud, stored files, data, and unused accounts increased significantly over time as more stored files and data proliferated without an end-of-life plan. This situation is unsustainable and puts educational institutions and their students at risk of a data breach. Today, education is the sector most affected by cybercrime, with K-12 alone recording over 80% of workplace malware attacks. The acronym K-12 is often used in the United States to refer to the entire school curriculum, from kindergarten (kindergarten) to secondary school (grade 12).
What is the reaction to this announcement in the education sector?
This announcement sparked mixed reactions from customers in the education sector. Some welcomed Microsoft's initiative and expressed support for its sustainability efforts. Others criticized Microsoft's decision, complaining about the company's lack of communication and flexibility.
Some customers also expressed concerns about the impact of this measure on their budgets and on their ability to store and share educational data, including large multimedia files. They called on Microsoft to review its policies or offer them alternative solutions.
Microsoft said it is listening to customer feedback and working to provide them with tools and guidance to optimize their use of cloud storage. Microsoft also emphasized that this measure will only apply from the next contract renewal, but not before August 1, 2024, which would give customers time to adjust.
The Case of McGill University
Students! Please read the information carefully as the information in this announcement impacts your ability to store files in your OneDrive account and may impact your ability to send email from Outlook after May 31, 2024 .
Microsoft is introducing changes to our service offering in our Microsoft 365 Education suite that require storage caps. Starting May 31, 2024, students will have access to 20 GB (gigabytes) of OneDrive storage in addition to 20 GB of Outlook email storage.
Microsoft's reduction in storage space is due to security risks associated with large amounts of confidential or sensitive information and data that could be forgotten. The financial and environmental costs of maintaining student account space reserved for unused files also need to be considered.
Sustainability is an important consideration that led Microsoft to make this decision. Billions of unused files and hundreds of petabytes stored on OneDrive servers around the world have a very negative impact on our carbon footprint. They require a lot of power to keep billions of files available and secure 24/7. This electrical energy is increasingly generating excess heat and we must put a stop to this dangerous development.
What do Internet users think?
Some think that this measure is more motivated by the need to save money:
Personally, the safety statements also make little sense.
When I encounter disk space limitations, I don't delete my survey results table, which contains private information. I'll simply delete the original video of this public lecture, which I already posted on YouTube anyway.
Professors may be justified in storing files they haven't touched in several years in a secure offline storage space in case they contain forgotten private information. But it seems that this also applies to student accounts, and there is already a process in place to delete data that has been forgotten for years: graduation.
It is much more likely that this is a cost-saving measure.
If we can assume that Microsoft is cutting costs by limiting its storage capacity for environmental reasons, then why couldn't Google's layoffs be interpreted in the same way? This is not about changing the mix of energy production or the energy supply, but simply about changing demand.
Layoffs also reduce energy demand because people have less money to buy products that require a lot of energy to produce and less money to pay their electricity and fuel bills.
Of course, this decision by Microsoft may lead to a reduction in new energy production capacity in the long run, but so can layoffs, wage cuts, recessions, depressions, famines and wars.
I don't think it's a bad thing that Microsoft is cutting costs in this way. This makes the company more efficient, but it is done to reduce costs, and not because Microsoft cares much about the environment, but because Microsoft realizes that money is a substitute for energy (i.e. the ability to generate entropy) and the Most cost reductions will also reduce energy demand, regardless of the nature of those cost reductions.
Sources: Microsoft Announcement, Changes to Storage Offerings in Microsoft 365 Education, McGill University
What do you think of Microsoft's decision to limit free cloud storage for education customers? Environmental responsibility or desire to save money?
What advantages and disadvantages does this measure have for educational institutions and end users?
How do you manage your cloud storage usage? What tools or tips do you use to optimize your storage space?
What is your opinion on Microsoft's sustainability strategy? Do you think Microsoft is doing enough to reduce its environmental impact?
What alternatives are there to Microsoft cloud storage? What criteria do you consider when choosing a cloud storage service?