Google Introduces Latest Cloud Storage Pricing Structure Beating All Competitors
3 min read
About 5 to 10 years ago, you would not have imagined owning personal online storage capacity of a terabyte; however, Google, living up to its brand name, has announced last week that it will offer a terabyte of cloud storage for merely $9.9.
The technology giant will provide the initial 15 GB per month without any cost, and if you need massive memory space, you can buy 10 terabytes or more for just $100.
Over the years, heavy pricing has been the biggest concern for organizations and individuals wisihing to convert to cloud computing but Google’s initiative will surely turn out to be a breakthrough for this technology, as it is likely to push the cloud rivals to lower down their prices. Let’s compare the pricing structure of some of the popular cloud service providers with Google Drive:
Dropbox
Dropbox charges $9.99 per month for 100 GB; whereas, the same memory space costs just $1.99 a month with Google Drive.
Apple
The Cupertino-based company demands $8.33 per month or $100 a year for 50 GB of iCloud storage capacity, but you can get twice the space every month for less than $25 a year with Google.
Microsoft’s OneDrive
Microsoft only offers annual plans, charging $25 a year for the starting package of 50 GB. In the same price, Google gives you 100 GB. However, to attract new users, Microsoft offers 7 GB totally free.
SugarSync
While a terabyte of storage costs just $9.99 with Google, you will have to pay $55 per month to SugarSync for up to 3 users.
Apart from individual users, Google has the cheapest plans for developers too. Amazon’s S3 cloud service, which is quite popular among developers, charges about $85 per month for one terabyte and Microsoft’s Azure platform, regarded as the cheapest plan for developers, costs around $68 a month for one terabyte. As mentioned above, Google will ask for just $9.99 for the same storage space.
Considering the predictions about the future of cloud computing, this is one of the most important offerings by the technology giant as Google Drive joins the company’s many other applications.
Some technology gurus believe that different rivals are already planning to lower down their cloud pricing in order to remain competitive against Google. This implies that the rate of cloud technology adoption around the globe will increase in the coming months. Therefore, Google’s initiative will leave a massive impact on the technology world – from developers to enterprises and eventually to the end users.
In the coming years, I do not see traditional methods of data storage surviving in an extremely competitive environment as public cloud will dominate the whole scenario.
Cloud computing, which was considered as an expensive feature in the past, has now turned into an affordable commodity, thanks to the latest revelations by Google, which lives up to its image of a trendsetter in global technology. The whole business model of many organizations that offer personal storage will change due to Google’s cheap pricing policy.
I will keep you updated about the expected changes in pricing structures of major cloud service providers in future.
