The Wall Street Journal reports that Google is about to announce an online storage space. Some call it GDrive, and I see it as a vital component of Google Computing Cloud. Regardless, instead of obsessing over the minutiae, I want to know what you folks specifically think about it. Take this poll and let us know.
I only put encrypted backups onto online storage, so scanning for ads isn’t an issue. Cost per gigabyte and ease of use are the most important criteria.
I have been using jot for a while. I got an account when I heard Google was going to buy them.
Jot allows for online file storage and I’ve been reading a lot where some people are seeing aspects of Jot showing up here and there in Google services.
My thinking is they are awfully close to rolling Jot out WITH the file storage/sharing capabilities built into it. This could be where Gdrive (or whatever it’s going to be called) will get its file storage capabilities.
I’ve been using Amazon’s S3 for backing up my hard drive and have been very happy with that. It will be interesting to see where Google comes in on pricing compared to Amazon. Google’s one of the few companies I can imagine could beat Amazon’s pricing and have similar reliability.
I tend to stay away from online storage systems since I have my own web hosting solution that I can store files on. I prefer to be in control of my files versus giving them over to someone else to manage.
With that said, I think that I would not mind an ad-supported version depending on the abundance of ads that are used. Knowing Google, they probably wont be in your face.
I haven’t used an online back up service yet but have considered it.
I use a lot of GOOG services and will most likely let GDrive be my first experience of online back up.
“I tend to stay away from online storage systems since I have my own web hosting solution that I can store files on. I prefer to be in control of my files versus giving them over to someone else to manage.”
The article notes, however — “They can purchase from 10 gigabytes to 400 gigabytes additional storage for $20 to $500 per year.”
$500/year for 400 gigabytes of storage is insanely cheap. That’s just $42/month. Amazon.Com’s S3 is considered commodity-level pricing and 500gb/month through them costs $75/month.
I don’t know of a single web hosting solution that can come anywhere near that pricing. If you have a lot of data storage needs, Google/Amazon are going to be by far the cheapest sources on the block (well, there are other sites that supposedly offer you as much storage as you want for some ridiculously small fee, but I question their reliability and long-term presence…when you’ve got a couple hundred gb stored on someone else’s server, you want to make sure they’re not going to be out of businesses in 6 months).
I currently use Mozy, which costs $60/year for unlimited storage. Also note that their free service, which was suspended for a while, is back up: 2GB for free, automated online backup.
Many people have blindly believed Google will dominate the Internet industry. which is not really the case. In fact, out of the search market, Google has not been successful. This doesn’t hurt for Google to get a lot of media exposure. Taking for example, GDrive was rumored for years… but the real online storage king is always a small innovator, not a big behemoth like Google. I recommend everybody to try DriveHQ Online Storage and Online Backup service (www.drivehq.com). I feel the usability, the group and sub-group file sharing, the advanced folder synchronization features are really killer apps. Even if Google launches its online storage service, it will be too late to catch up.