Business Starter customers will soon have access to Share Drive
What's changing
Last year, Google announced that it was updating the Business Starter feature from per-user storage to Pool Storage. See more - Applying pool storage feature to Google Workspace Starter plan Today, Google is pleased to announce that organizations using Business Starter will officially have access to Share Drive, effective from mid-September.
With this change, Business Starter users will be able to create shared drives and add members, files, and folders. Please note that some admin-level controls and security features - such as the ability to control access to items within a shared drive - will not be included in the basic version of shared drive for Business Starter.
Who is affected
Administrators and end users
Why this matters
Share Drive is an important collaboration tool - users can store, search, and access their team's files instantly. Additionally, they provide benefits such as:
- Easy discovery: Less time spent requesting file access and searching for related documents with all your team's files in one place.
- Files last forever: All content remains in place - even if a collaborator or team member leaves, your content won't be lost.
- Easy collaboration: Each member of a shared drive can discover and collaborate on the same file. You can also add users outside your team or organization.
- Access anywhere: Regardless of location or device, you can always access the files you need most.
Additional details
When Share Drive is provided to Business Starter customers, all users will be able to create shared drives by default. If this default behavior is not desired, Admins can update their settings before Business Starter users gain access to the feature starting September 23, 2024. To restrict this, go to Admin Console > Menu > Apps > Google Workspace > Drive and Docs > Sharing settings > Create shared drive > enable "Prevent users in [domain name] from creating new shared storage".
Administrators:
When shared drive is available for Business Starter, administrators can use the Admin Console to:
- Add and remove members
- Change member access levels
- Restrict content from being moved outside
