I Hope Google Doesn’t Ban Us... - Abusing Unlimited Google Drive

Summary

In this video, the team explores creative solutions to back up over 370 terabytes of data with a focus on cost-effectiveness and practicality. They examine options like local storage, tape backups, and cloud services, ultimately discovering a loophole in Google's G Suite 'unlimited' storage plan. By strategically using multiple accounts, they bypass the upload cap, making it a surprisingly cheap and effective backup solution. While this workaround offers an immediate low-cost solution, they caution that it may not be sustainable in the long run and may require adjustment if Google changes its policies.

Takeaways

• 😀 The Linus Media Group's petabyte project solved a massive archival storage problem, but lacks geo-redundancy, meaning data could be lost in a disaster.
• 😀 Traditional backup methods, like hard drives and tape storage, are cost-prohibitive, with solutions ranging from $20,000 to $70,000 for data redundancy.
• 😀 Cloud storage (e.g., AWS Glacier) offers geo-redundancy but is very expensive, costing thousands per month and additional fees for data retrieval.
• 😀 Google Drive's 'unlimited' storage option appeared to be a potential workaround for backing up petabytes of data at a low cost.
• 😀 Google's G Suite offers unlimited storage for $50 per month (for five users), but there’s a 750GB per user per day upload limit.
• 😀 By using multiple G Suite accounts, the upload limit can be bypassed, effectively increasing upload capacity to 40-45MB/sec across all accounts.
• 😀 This creative workaround allows the backup of massive data on Google Drive for under $1,000 a year, a fraction of the cost of traditional cloud storage or hardware solutions.
• 😀 While the solution is cost-effective, there’s a risk that Google could shut it down at any time, and the workaround may no longer be viable.
• 😀 Despite potential risks, this method supports encryption for uploads and downloads, and there's no fee for pulling data down from the cloud.
• 😀 The backup solution is not perfect, but it provides a functional, low-cost alternative for storing vast amounts of data, with a fallback plan in case Google changes its policies.

Q & A

What is the main problem Linus Media Group (LMG) is trying to solve?

LMG is trying to find a cost-effective way to back up 370 terabytes of data and ensure geo-redundancy for disaster recovery, preventing data loss in the event of a fire or natural disaster.

Why did LMG initially consider hardware solutions like additional servers or tape storage?

LMG considered hardware solutions because they were initially looking for a way to back up their data locally or through a reliable, physical medium. However, the high upfront costs (around $70,000 for new servers or $20,000 for tape storage) made these options impractical.

What cloud storage solution did LMG explore, and what were the issues they encountered?

LMG explored Amazon Web Services (AWS) Glacier for cloud storage. The main issues were the high monthly costs (around $3,400 for 760 terabytes) and the expensive fees for retrieving data, particularly if data needed to be pulled urgently.

What is the 'unlimited' storage offered by Google Drive, and what limitation did LMG discover?

Google Drive offers 'unlimited' storage under certain plans, but LMG discovered that there is a limit on the upload speed: users are capped at 750GB of data uploaded per day per account. Exceeding this would result in an upload ban for 24 hours.

How did LMG work around the 750GB daily upload limit on Google Drive?

LMG worked around the upload limit by creating multiple Google accounts. By distributing the data across several accounts, they were able to max out their upload speeds and avoid hitting the daily limit on any single account.

What was the upload speed LMG was able to achieve using multiple Google accounts?

By using multiple Google accounts, LMG was able to achieve an upload speed of 40–45MB per second, effectively backing up large amounts of data without hitting Google's 750GB daily cap.

What was the cost of the solution LMG implemented using Google Drive?

LMG paid for seven G Suite accounts, costing $70 per month. This setup allowed them to back up data at a rate of less than $1,000 per year, making it an extremely cost-effective solution compared to other options.

What security feature does the Google Drive backup solution support?

The Google Drive backup solution supports encryption on both upload and download, ensuring that the data is secure during the transfer process.

What is the potential risk of LMG's workaround with Google Drive?

The potential risk is that Google may shut down or limit the ability to use multiple accounts to circumvent the upload cap, making the workaround ineffective. There is no guarantee that Google will allow this long-term.

How does LMG feel about exploiting the loophole in Google Drive's storage system?

LMG acknowledges that they're exploiting a loophole and considers themselves 'terrible people' for doing so, but they are comfortable with the solution since it works well for their needs at a low cost.