Systems and methods are disclosed for cross-system user-level management of data objects stored in one or more information management systems, and for user-level management of data storage quotas in information management systems, including data objects in secondary storage. An illustrative quota manager is associated with one or more information management systems. The quota manager comprises a quota value representing the maximum amount of data storage allowed for a given end-user's primary and secondary data in the one or more information management systems. The quota manager determines whether data associated with the end-user has exceeded the storage quota, and if so, prompts the end-user to select data for deletion, the deletion to be implemented globally, across the primary and secondary storage subsystems of the respective one or more information management systems. Meanwhile, so long as the quota is exceeded, the quota manager instructs storage managers to block backups of end-user's data.