Features

Microsoft Set To Compete with Google, AOL, Yahoo in Online Storage Space

By Priya George

Microsoft has confirmed details of its forthcoming Live Drive service, which will offer free online storage that can be accessed directly from PCs running the Vista operating system. Google, Yahoo and AOL are also working on similar services.

The Online Storage Market

An explosion of digital content is driving the boom in online storage. Initially consumers stored data in the form of e-mails and attachments on online services. Today the storage realm has broadened, as consumers want to store music, movies, pictures and blogs, and access it through different devices.

"It's not just about expanded storage capacity. It's also about remotely accessing your data", says Streamload CEO Steve Iverson. Approximately 80,000 people a week open new storage accounts on Streamload's network.

Luckily, the price of storage continues to plummet, dropping around 50 percent per year. Hard drives cost about 50 cents or less per gigabyte, and that's on retail hard drives. A thousand gigabytes go into a terabyte. Thus, a terabyte worth of hard drives, if purchased in volume, will cost a few hundred dollars.

Early indications predict that Microsoft will offer a free 2 gigabytes of storage, with additional space available for a fee. It'll likely go head to head with Google, who is expected to announce a Google Drive service, as well as offerings from AOL, Yahoo, and a myriad of third party solutions.

Microsoft Reveals Plans about LiveDrive Following Announcements by Google, AOL, and Yahoo

Microsoft’s Live Drive will provide users with a virtual hard drive for storing hosted personal data. Speaking at a blogger's breakfast prior to the opening of Tech.Ed in Sydney, Microsoft Australia technical specialist John Hodgson said that the basic Live Drive was likely to include around 2 GB of storage for free. Additional storage capacity would be available for purchase, though pricing schemes and final release dates haven't been announced.

On the other hand, archrival Google is developing similar technology, code-named Gdrive. Google's Gdrive solution is expected to provide both consumers and business customers with an unlimited amount of online storage for their data. Google has declined to provide further specifics or a timetable for its planned Gdrive rollout.

According to sources, Google is working on two other storage-related services, GDS and Lighthouse. All three projects are focused on delivering 'infinite storage' and 'infinite bandwidth,' according to slides Google shared with analysts.

Microsoft, likewise, has shared few specifics about Live Drive. Microsoft Chief Technology Officer Ray Ozzie said, "Microsoft is planning to use its server farms to offer anyone huge amounts of online storage of digital data". He continued, "With Live Drive, all your information—movies, music, tax information, a high-definition videoconference you had with your grandmother, whatever—could be accessible from anywhere, on any device."

AOL to Offer 5GB of Online Storage from September

AOL recently announced that it would offer 5 GB of online storage for free beginning in early September to those who have an AIM or AOL screenname. The online storage will be powered by AOL's Xdrive service.

“People are accumulating personal digital assets at a fast pace, especially in areas like digital photos and videos,” said John McKinley, president of AOL Digital Services. “Yet our in-home research shows that few people are taking steps to protect their digital memories from accidental loss or destruction. By offering consumers the combination of 5 GB of free secure online storage and Xdrive’s powerful automated backup and online sharing tools, AOL is giving people a simple, effective and free way to protect their digital memories and have access to them anywhere they go.”

In its announcement, AOL explains, "The storage offering, powered by AOL's Xdrive(R) service, will allow users to back up important files like photos, documents, music, videos, and more. Users will be able to access their files from any PC or mobile device with a Web connection, share them with others by granting file/folder permission, move them via easy drag-and-drop tools, automatically back up important files or folders, and auto-upload any e-mail attachments they receive via major providers. There will be no charges for user to upload or download."

Google Drive

"With infinite storage, we can house all user files, and emails, web history, pictures, and bookmarks and make it accessible from anywhere (any device, any platform, and so on). We already have efforts in this direction in terms of GDrive, GDS, Lighthouse, but all of them face bandwidth and storage constraints today", excerpt from Analyst Day presentation notes.
In a PowerPoint presentation to financial analysts last week, Google said that it envisages a future with 'infinite storage, bandwidth, and CPU power'. As a result the computer platform will become less important.

"This will help us make the client less important (thin client, thick server model) which suits our strength vis-a-vis Microsoft and is also of great value to the user, "it said.

"As we move toward the 'Store 100 per cent' reality, the online copy of your data will become your Golden Copy and your local-machine copy serves more like a cache. An important implication of this theme is that we can make your online copy more secure than it would be on your own machine.", Google officials concluded.


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