War of the Clouds!!!

Recently google came up with Google Drive. So, what was new that made google to create a launch pad so late when others are established as a name. Skydrive, Opendrive , Justcloud , Dropbox , Mimedia, icloud are leaders in their own right signifying SaaS[Storage –as – a- Service] to be something which can be traded.

Comparisons aren’t much. Apple has been the first mover to provide us with ipod,iphone or ipad. With limited attachments, glossy finish and a hyped marketing they have been able to secure a commendable market place. I have never been a proponent of the Apple saga and do not expect much from the Icloud, which only allows a device with iOS 5 or OS X Lion 10.7.2 to be backed up. Everything here is a paid service without knowing its worth.

Justcloud or mimedia are paid services. Although they allow some free space, you never know when they would ask for your credit card details. When I uninstalled justcloud, it offered 10GB @ $1 per month. The plan was not there in the pricelist. Apps are easy to install and syncs folders at ease.

Opendrive allows 5GB of free storage with a file size limitation of 100 MB. It does not belong to the open source syndicate, as the name suggests.

Dropbox which gives you 2GB of free space, easy interface and a soothing sync. Short and Smart indeed! 2GB is however too small to taste the goods. It provides you with a link to every file stored. Henceforth you prepare a web page, do not waste money on hosting sites, unless otherwise required.

I am always biased towards the open source market which nourishes and flourishes with a business model beyond comparison. Moreover, in case of the Microsofts and Apples, price paid for a product is not always proportional to your requirements. Technology products are not like toothpastes which needs to be used for the same purpose, with equal importance by every individual.

Microsoft launched its skydrive way back in 2007 and provides 7GB of free space. The desktop App was launched on 22^nd April, 2012.It supports files size upto 2GB. Truly Charitable on the part of Microsoft, which has built its reputation known to all. This might be one of the best moves by them in the recent years.

Google Docs, was already there. Then what’s new with Google Drive? It provides an additional 2.5 GB of data and is a reply to Skydrive Apps. Google drive Helps you to store files of any format , which was not possible with Docs. Soon the gmail attachments can be made a part of google drive. Being the best in “search technology” , it scans through stored images for texts which could help in searching. It has added support to 30 file types. So, now on if you need to check a Photoshop file and the Application is not in your machine, use google to open it. But, it has to evolve and mature.

So, the next time a cloud vendor says that you can access your files from anywhere and everywhere, check twice on the “any-ware” and “every-ware”… Cheers!!!

 

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