Google Drive for Work, more than unlimited storage

Personal cloud storage prices moved down another step this week when Google announced Google Drive for Work.

The service is a business version of Google Drive. It comes complete with administrative controls and APIs. Drive for Work offers customers unlimited cloud storage for US$10 per user per month.

Google announced Drive for Work within days of Microsoft cutting prices for its OneDrive cloud service.

Despite appearances — and the way some media outlets tell the story — the two are not in direct competition.

Google says: “Drive for Work is a new premium offering for businesses that includes unlimited storage, advanced audit reporting and new security controls”.

Business class Google Drive

Which means Drive for Work is what the label says: a strictly business proposition. Companies have to sign five employees to the service to be eligible for the US$10 a month unlimited storage offer. It is not for consumers or micro-enterprises.

Cloud storage is a fast-moving market, it's possible Google will push the same offer, or a similar unlimited storage plan, to consumers at a later date.

Google Drive for Work highlights another important cloud storage trend: Companies offering cloud storage don’t stop at packing bits into a data centre, they wrap value added services around their offers.

Generous storage plans are used by cloud vendors to lure customers into paying for non-commodity products and services. That’s where the market share battle will be fought between Google, Apple and Microsoft.

Where this leaves other cloud storage providers like Dropbox, Box and Mega is not clear, but it will not make life easy for any of them. They now need to find ways to differentiate their offerings.