Is it time to ditch Dropbox? Are you be ready to move to Google Drive or pay them say $60 per year for 100GB of secured anywhere accessible data. I think I will move to Google..
I started using Dropbox recently. Mainly to keep my folders synched between different machines and to some extent upload important files which I might need to refer any time anywhere. It worked seamlessly and I loved it. I just took very basic 2GB account which I grew up to 3.5 GB by referring some of my friends. I love the concept of Dropbox.. it is such a simple concept.. however, it is executed flawlessly.. amazing app on iPhon, iPad, MAC, PC.. behind firewalls or front of firewalls.. any where.. it works like a charm..
At the same time, if I want to upload my photo library it will be really expensive solution as I have close to 60 GB worth images. All thanks to Digital cameras first, then to iPhone.. size keeps on growing.. I think I bought my first Sony Digital Camera in 2003. Now after almost 10 years later I have around 60 GB. Almost 6 GB per year.. that is 500 MB per month.. that is almost 20 MB per day.. which is around 6-7 pictures per day!!! that is a lot!!! All thanks to Picasa, Facebook and now Google+ ... most of the good images are in cloud already.. but mostly in format which can only be viewed on computer.. can't be printed (when was the last time I printed photos).
Any how, with Google also getting into this cloud storage business for masses, I think prices will come down for sure. Google can leverage their ultimate Networking/Storage technology to do this job much better than any one else for sure. So they are going to be force to reckon with in this area.. Doesn't matter if they are entering late. As long as they execute it they should be fine. If they can't execute properly then they should buy Dropbox.
Search is the biggest advantage with Google.. They are not only going to provide you with storage space, but along with it their built in search capabilities will make it really great product. I will buy their cloud storage drive for sure.. Moment they enable it on iPhone/iPad I will be there customer. Till that time I am happy with my Dropbox service!! or may be Dropbox will make their prices competitive to Google.. I won't mind staying with them.. or I will change to Google... good thing is that it will be piece of cake to change my storage provider!!!
http://www.siliconvalley.com/personal-technology/ci_20468361/google-drive-cloud-launches-storage-collaboration
By offering a wide menu of software apps that will run on Drive, as well as the ability to store volumes of data that will increasingly rival what can be stored on a hard drive, some say Google is taking a big step toward making native operating systems like Windows and Apple’s Mac OS a less central element of personal computing.
“This is like the ultimate attack by Google on Microsoft and Windows,” said Jostein Svendsen, CEO of WeVideo, a Sunnyvale startup whose video-editing application was one of the apps selected as a launch partner with Drive. “You are removing the importance of the underlying operating system.”
Existing Google Docs files, the centerpiece of Google’s existing cloud storage offering, will move to the Google Drive service once users download apps and install the new service. Google will offer users up to 5 gigabytes of storage for free, and up to 25 gigabytes for $2.49 a month.
Still, Google has a problem. Since Apple launched the iPad two years ago, more and more people have needed to sync their data between many devices, and a growing number of people and companies have been using cloud services like Dropbox, which according to comScore data has seen its monthly traffic triple to 3.6 million users over the past year.
At the same time, Apple and Amazon can leverage their strength in music, books and other media to drive users to their cloud services.
“I wouldn’t completely write them off, but I definitely feel that Google is late to the game,” said Jesse Lipson, the founder and CEO of ShareFile, a cloud-based file-sharing service aimed at business users that now has more than 5 million users and which was acquired last year by Citrix.
Liz Conner, an analyst with the research firm IDC, said Google will also have to deal with the fact that millions of consumers have already uploaded their files to Dropbox, Box, Sugarsync or other cloud services. “Most people, if they love Dropbox, I’m not sure they are going to rush out to join Google,” she said.
Other users, she said, are not yet comfortable storing precious photographs or sensitive private data on the “cloud” — a metaphor for the vast network of Internetconnected servers that can be networked by big companies like Google, Amazon or Microsoft to run software or store data.
Like Dropbox, Google Drive integrates into the operating system of a Windows PC or a Mac, or an Android mobile device, meaning that one copy of a file is stored locally on each synced machine, along with a copy that is stored on the cloud. Google is working on a version for Apple’s iOS mobile operating system that powers iPhones and iPads, but that is not quite ready.
A user who downloads the Drive app and syncs their devices through the cloud will see their files automatically updated between devices each time they change a file in one location.
“To me at the crux of it, it’s a way to live your online life, available to you wherever you go,” Pichai said.
Contact Mike Swift at 408-271-3648. Follow him at Twitter.com/swiftstories or facebook.com/mike.swift3.
I started using Dropbox recently. Mainly to keep my folders synched between different machines and to some extent upload important files which I might need to refer any time anywhere. It worked seamlessly and I loved it. I just took very basic 2GB account which I grew up to 3.5 GB by referring some of my friends. I love the concept of Dropbox.. it is such a simple concept.. however, it is executed flawlessly.. amazing app on iPhon, iPad, MAC, PC.. behind firewalls or front of firewalls.. any where.. it works like a charm..
At the same time, if I want to upload my photo library it will be really expensive solution as I have close to 60 GB worth images. All thanks to Digital cameras first, then to iPhone.. size keeps on growing.. I think I bought my first Sony Digital Camera in 2003. Now after almost 10 years later I have around 60 GB. Almost 6 GB per year.. that is 500 MB per month.. that is almost 20 MB per day.. which is around 6-7 pictures per day!!! that is a lot!!! All thanks to Picasa, Facebook and now Google+ ... most of the good images are in cloud already.. but mostly in format which can only be viewed on computer.. can't be printed (when was the last time I printed photos).
Any how, with Google also getting into this cloud storage business for masses, I think prices will come down for sure. Google can leverage their ultimate Networking/Storage technology to do this job much better than any one else for sure. So they are going to be force to reckon with in this area.. Doesn't matter if they are entering late. As long as they execute it they should be fine. If they can't execute properly then they should buy Dropbox.
Search is the biggest advantage with Google.. They are not only going to provide you with storage space, but along with it their built in search capabilities will make it really great product. I will buy their cloud storage drive for sure.. Moment they enable it on iPhone/iPad I will be there customer. Till that time I am happy with my Dropbox service!! or may be Dropbox will make their prices competitive to Google.. I won't mind staying with them.. or I will change to Google... good thing is that it will be piece of cake to change my storage provider!!!
http://www.siliconvalley.com/personal-technology/ci_20468361/google-drive-cloud-launches-storage-collaboration
‘THE ULTIMATE ATTACK’
‘Google Drive’ vies for spot in the cloud
Users can sync files between PCs and phones, but analysts wonder if product is too late to the game
By Mike Swift
mswift@mercurynews.com
Google is taking the wraps off a long-anticipated product that it views as one of its most important launches of the year, as the Internet giant continues its push toward a future in which users’ photos, spreadsheets and other data primarily live on the Internet “cloud” instead of a PC or some other device.
The launch of “Google Drive” Tuesday has been a poorly kept secret in Silicon Valley, with the name and a rough description of the online storage product widely circulated in recent weeks as Google has worked out the final bugs. Drive will open up to millions of users around the world starting Tuesday, allowing them to sync their files between PCs, smartphones and tablets.
But the success of Drive will ride largely on whether Google can differentiate its offering from already established fast-growing cloud storage startups that were in the market first, such as Dropbox and Box, as well as Microsoft’s SkyDrive cloud service, and big consumer media competitors like Apple’s iCloud and Amazon’s Cloud Drive.
“At the heart of it, Google is about cloud computing — letting people live on the cloud and get things done on the cloud,” said Sundar Pichai, the Google executive who heads the company’s Chrome browser and cloud apps efforts.
‘Google Drive’ vies for spot in the cloud
Users can sync files between PCs and phones, but analysts wonder if product is too late to the game
By Mike Swift
mswift@mercurynews.com
Google is taking the wraps off a long-anticipated product that it views as one of its most important launches of the year, as the Internet giant continues its push toward a future in which users’ photos, spreadsheets and other data primarily live on the Internet “cloud” instead of a PC or some other device.
The launch of “Google Drive” Tuesday has been a poorly kept secret in Silicon Valley, with the name and a rough description of the online storage product widely circulated in recent weeks as Google has worked out the final bugs. Drive will open up to millions of users around the world starting Tuesday, allowing them to sync their files between PCs, smartphones and tablets.
But the success of Drive will ride largely on whether Google can differentiate its offering from already established fast-growing cloud storage startups that were in the market first, such as Dropbox and Box, as well as Microsoft’s SkyDrive cloud service, and big consumer media competitors like Apple’s iCloud and Amazon’s Cloud Drive.
“At the heart of it, Google is about cloud computing — letting people live on the cloud and get things done on the cloud,” said Sundar Pichai, the Google executive who heads the company’s Chrome browser and cloud apps efforts.
By offering a wide menu of software apps that will run on Drive, as well as the ability to store volumes of data that will increasingly rival what can be stored on a hard drive, some say Google is taking a big step toward making native operating systems like Windows and Apple’s Mac OS a less central element of personal computing.
“This is like the ultimate attack by Google on Microsoft and Windows,” said Jostein Svendsen, CEO of WeVideo, a Sunnyvale startup whose video-editing application was one of the apps selected as a launch partner with Drive. “You are removing the importance of the underlying operating system.”
Existing Google Docs files, the centerpiece of Google’s existing cloud storage offering, will move to the Google Drive service once users download apps and install the new service. Google will offer users up to 5 gigabytes of storage for free, and up to 25 gigabytes for $2.49 a month.
Still, Google has a problem. Since Apple launched the iPad two years ago, more and more people have needed to sync their data between many devices, and a growing number of people and companies have been using cloud services like Dropbox, which according to comScore data has seen its monthly traffic triple to 3.6 million users over the past year.
At the same time, Apple and Amazon can leverage their strength in music, books and other media to drive users to their cloud services.
“I wouldn’t completely write them off, but I definitely feel that Google is late to the game,” said Jesse Lipson, the founder and CEO of ShareFile, a cloud-based file-sharing service aimed at business users that now has more than 5 million users and which was acquired last year by Citrix.
Liz Conner, an analyst with the research firm IDC, said Google will also have to deal with the fact that millions of consumers have already uploaded their files to Dropbox, Box, Sugarsync or other cloud services. “Most people, if they love Dropbox, I’m not sure they are going to rush out to join Google,” she said.
Other users, she said, are not yet comfortable storing precious photographs or sensitive private data on the “cloud” — a metaphor for the vast network of Internetconnected servers that can be networked by big companies like Google, Amazon or Microsoft to run software or store data.
Like Dropbox, Google Drive integrates into the operating system of a Windows PC or a Mac, or an Android mobile device, meaning that one copy of a file is stored locally on each synced machine, along with a copy that is stored on the cloud. Google is working on a version for Apple’s iOS mobile operating system that powers iPhones and iPads, but that is not quite ready.
A user who downloads the Drive app and syncs their devices through the cloud will see their files automatically updated between devices each time they change a file in one location.
“To me at the crux of it, it’s a way to live your online life, available to you wherever you go,” Pichai said.
Contact Mike Swift at 408-271-3648. Follow him at Twitter.com/swiftstories or facebook.com/mike.swift3.
1 comment:
One of my friend recommended to check out Microsoft's Skydrive.. They are giving 25GB free.. Which is great. I totally missed them in my analysis. Actually, as of today Skydirve seems to be best value for money (free) for 25GB storage. Also, currently they are better off from Google's cloud drive as it works across the board. Seems that their privacy policies are also one of the best!!
Looks like Microsoft is coming back.. I started loving them already :-)
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