Changes impacting employee and A5 licenced accounts

About this change

Microsoft has recently implemented a substantial reduction in cloud storage allocated to Higher Education institutions worldwide. As a result, University of Waterloo must reduce the overall amount of storage used across campus to align with Microsoft’s policies. This change will impact all University students, alumni, retirees, and generic accounts (June), and employees (August). Revised storage limits for each group are based on analysis of past and current usage.

Impact of this change for employees

The new storage limits will be implemented for Microsoft OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams, and email (Outlook). Individuals will need to ensure the amount of data stored within M365 remains below the new quotas. An error message will appear when logged in to your M365 portal (portal.office.com) if you are at or over your quota(s) with advice on how to free up space. Please also see the Microsoft 365 storage quotas and information page for additional info and support resources.

Important notes

• While data will not be deleted, exceeding these limits may ultimately affect the ability to edit, store, and/or send files to/from these apps, as well as sending and receiving email. See tips for reducing quotas linked under Support resources below.
• On a temporary basis, IST is granting employees who are over the email or OneDrive quota limits a temporary exception to reduce interruption to day-to-day work while they work to reduce their quotas to meet the new requirements. The exception will expire on May 1, 2026.
• IST, in partnership with local IT groups, will follow up with employees at or over the new quotas to reduce their storage to the new limits, as soon as possible.

• A5 employee licence holders will have two alternate storage options available to them should additional space be required: a centrally supported, on-premises, enterprise-level private cloud environment (recommended solution), or additional storage provided by Microsoft. These solutions will be made available by May 1, 2026, at the latest. An annual fee may be required for both options. Additional information regarding these alternate storage options and required annual fees will be shared once confirmed.

New data storage quotas for employees