We are a collective of 9 filmmakers who have been paying for a Google Workspace Enterprise plan since 2017, which we have been using solely for the unlimited Googe Drive feature to store our video content. Over the years the prices kept going up and we were fine with that.
Then about 2 years ago the Storage Meter said we were over our space with a red bar, and that it was no longer unlimited. We reached out to support several times about increasing our quota, but never heard back ... and let it lie ... and for 2 years they did nothing about it. (We have about 250TB up there.)
Then a month ago they said they were raising prices again, and offered that we could save a lot by paying for a year in advance, which we did.
Now suddenly we were warned that we have only 5TB per user (i.e., 45TB) and in 60 days they are gonna put is in read-only mode. I hit the 'request more' link and within minutes it said '10TB per user' (90TB) – which is still 160TB over capacity.
The "off-the-shelf" price for the extra 160TB is way too expensive for us. ($300/month per each extra 10TB.)
So now we are looking to leave Drive and go elsewhere ... which would be a major headache.
Are there any alternatives? Or any way to get a lot more space? We can afford about $300 per month ... but not much more than that.
Era of unlimited storage is over - nobody serious offers such option any more today.
Nowadays expect to pay about $30 per TB per year for cheap and reliable provider. Good example is iDrive e2 s3 - $300 per month will buy you 120TB of cloud storage.
For sure you will not have experience like with AWS S3 (but it is $300 per TB per year).
I am not familiar with Google so can't say how iDrive looks in comparison.
I use it myself and have not seen any real issues yet. It is cheap and solid S3 compatible storage from very reliable provider (longer in business than Google).
They offer 10GB trial account but it is hard to asses all service aspects with such limited space. However pay as you go pricing is $4 for 1TB per month so for few $ you can test everything you care about.
You should mix local and cloud storage. In EU you can get 20TB (~18TB usable) for roughly 300€.
Your first action should be to reduce. Check what files you do not need or might be redundant. Then proceed to compress older files (least used ones) - especially larger ones. This can already reduce needed space by 10-30%+.
The there are short and long term options.
You could add licenses to Google and ask then ask for quota increase. Another way is to add licenses for a certain time period to avoid the read state (you can also effectively avoid/reset the warning for some time but don't overdo).
Alternatives would be Microsoft. They would likely be in your budget. ~100€ can net you 100-125TB storage there (prices may have changed it's been like 6 months+ last time I checked it)
Just try to get rid of everything you don't need.
Another way with Google is to add new users give them proper licenses, load their personal storage to their limit and then convert the license to an archived user.
