Good news for those of you that are using Google Apps for business. Beginning May 28th, 2013 you’ll get 30 GB of unified storage to use as you like between Drive and Gmail. Just as before, files created in Docs, Sheets and Slides don’t count against your storage quota.

With this new combined storage, you can use your storage how you need to. Gmail inboxes for Google Apps customers are no longer limited to 25 GB — any additional storage you purchase can be shared and used by Gmail. Or alternatively, if you’re only using a few gigabytes of email storage, but have a lot of large documents and files stored in Google Drive, you can now use your storage primarily for Drive.

Below is the original email from Google:

Hello Google Apps administrator,

Here’s important news: Google storage quota is being unified across Gmail and Drive.

Beginning May 28th, 2013, Google will change to a new, simpler allowance for storage—one that’s combined across Gmail and Drive. We’re replacing the current, separate storage allowances—25GB for Gmail and 5GB for Drive—with a single 30GB quota that will cover Gmail, Drive and Google+ Photos.

Should users need more than the 30GB quota, they can purchase additional Drive storage using the existing ordering points, and the higher allowance will continue to be spread across all of these services.

This update is expected to roll out to Rapid Release domains beginning May 28th, 2013, and to Scheduled Release domains starting June 11th, 2013.

Here’s how the change will affect your users:

• Each user will have a total of 30GB of included storage that can be used across Gmail, Drive and Google+ Photos.

• Users who needed extra storage under the old plans may no longer require it. For example, a Gmail user with just 3GB of email stored will be able to store up to 27GB of files in Drive without a need to license additional storage.

• Gmail inboxes are no longer limited to 25GB. Each user can store up to 16TB of email by purchasing additional storage licenses.

• As before, when users approach their storage quota, additional storage should be purchased to continue using Drive and Gmail normally.

• Also as before, files created in Docs, Sheets and Slides, as well as photos in Google+ smaller than 2048px, won’t count against storage quota.

For more information, please take a look at the FAQ and Help Center. And feel free to contact Google Apps support if you have any questions or need further assistance (you can find contact information on the Support tab in your Admin console).

Thank you,

The Google Apps Team

Office 2010 provided the option to save a document as a PDF. With Office 2013, you can now edit a PDF file within Word 2013 — without need of a third-party application like Adobe Acrobat. When a PDF is opened in Word 2013, it is automatically converted to a Word doc ready to be edited. You can edit text, data inside tables, and even move images around the document. When you’re finished editing, you can save the document as either a PDF or a Word file. This is a must-have feature for anyone who works with PDF’s frequently!

Have you made the switch from an email client like Outlook to a web based email service like Gmail recently? Are you having trouble attaching files to an email from Word or Excel? Or do you have trouble scanning documents from your scanner to an email?

Good news, I just discovered a solution I’m pretty excited to share with you that will make your life a little easier. It’s called Affixa. The Affixa application will essentially make your web based email client the default client in Windows, allowing you to attach files and scan directly to an email in Gmail. If you haven’t completely committed to a web email service, Affixa also allows you to choose between webmail and desktop accounts when you want to. Sounds like a no-brainer!