Sunday, October 30, 2011

Which Providers Offer Free Cloud Storage?

By Roy Valance


Permitting consumers to experience their product before purchasing it motivates a lot of companies to provide free cloud storage. When your storage requirements are small (generally 5GB or less), this free service may be sufficient to meet them. You should be aware of the limitations associated with most free storage before you decide on making it a part of your company's long-term plan, however.

What are Some of the Limitations of Free Cloud Storage?

Because free online storage providers earn the majority of their income from larger clients who pay for storage on the same network of virtual servers utilized by their non-paying clients, they often place a number of limitations on free usage.

Reduced Storage Limits

Free online storage services generally limit your total storage to less than 5GB, although some will give you more (e.g. ADrive permits as much as 50GB) and others less (Google Docs restricts non-paying customers to 1GB). The thinking behind this common practice is to attract new customers by impressing them with a complimentary sample of the service.

Limits on File Size

For an additional measure to control the amount of storage space allotted to free customers, some companies will set limitations on file sizes that may be kept on their servers. The scope in allowable file sizes is quite large, running from just 2GB up to file sizes that would take up the free account's full allotted space.

While file size limits are the standard for the majority of free online storage services, it is possible to find providers that buck the trend. Some companies place no size limits on individual file uploads.

Mandatory Use of Web Portals

As an added security measure, some providers force their free customers to use a portal to gain access to their account. Without a desktop client application, these customers are required to log in through a web site whenever they need to access their data.

Advertisements Shown on Your Portal Pages

Among the tradeoffs of using a free storage service is that a part of your web portal page is used as advertising space by the service provider. By making money with this page, the provider can make some revenue from free clients. While some people may see this as an issue, the issue's impact is really only cosmetic.

Limited Full Product Support

Perhaps the greatest downside to being a free client is that you do not receive the same amount of product support as standard customers. Should you encounter difficulties with data loss or other service breakdowns, your free account may leave you out of luck when searching for a remedy.

The Advantages of Free Cloud Storage

Aside from the cost advantage (it's difficult to top something that is free), free online storage services also afford consumers something that is very hard to find in the world today - the opportunity to test the actual service before purchasing it. For customers with limited storage requirements, this sample size may even be enough to satisfy their needs. If you like the service offered by a particular company and your business' needs grow, you can always upgrade to a full account in order to satisfy your requirements.




About the Author:



0 comments:

Post a Comment