Information for Employees
Microsoft storage changes for employees
Beginning in summer 2025 (see the timeline for details), employees will be allocated storage by their department to use within the Microsoft 365 (M365) environment as follows:
Individual M365 storage
Employees will be allocated baseline storage amounts in both Exchange Online and OneDrive, according to the type of Microsoft license they have:
- A5 license (this includes most employees): 50 gigabytes (GB) in Exchange Online, and 50 GB in OneDrive
- A1 license (less common): 25 GB in Exchange Online, and 5 GB in OneDrive
Individual email and/or OneDrive storage may be increased based on user need. Please contact your department with questions about additional storage.
Employees with an A5 license will have access to 1.5 terabytes (TB) of archive email storage. Emails will automatically archive after four years. Archives do not count against your email storage allocation. Employees with A1 licenses do not have access to an archive mailbox.
Shared M365 resources
- Shared Microsoft resources (SharePoint, Teams, Groups, Viva Engage communitites, etc.) are managed by departments. Requests for new sites/groups can be made through the IT Service Catalog.
- Your department will work with you to determine which shared resources to keep, or “claim,” and how much storage to allocate to each.
- Existing shared resources will need to be claimed by a department by June 30, 2025 in order to remain active.
- Unclaimed shared resources (no departmental sponsorship) are now read-only. They will be hidden from view June 30, 2025 and deleted starting July 14, 2025.
How do I know what type of Microsoft 365 license I have?
Most Virginia Tech employees have an A5 license, which includes the versions of M365 services outlined here. However, a small number of employees have an A1 license.
You can view your M365 license type in the MyCAT Tool. Once logged into the tool, scroll down to the "Licenses" tab. Click to open the tab; there, under "Product Name," you will see your license type: M365 A5 or M365 A1.
If you have questions about your M365 license, please contact your department's IT office.
Employees can take the following actions to prepare:
- Check your current Microsoft storage amount in MyCAT. Scroll to and open the M365 tab to view your storage in OneDrive and Exchange Online.
- Work with your department to determine if any storage cleanup is needed. Please keep university retention policy requirements in mind if you do decide to remove data.
- Refer to the timeline for important dates and deadlines.
- Transfer any personal files to a personal account.
Where to get help
You can find an updated list of support resources and tutorials on this website. Our FAQs also contain more answers about these upcoming service changes.
Please contact your departmental IT team with questions about Microsoft storage changes.