New Cloud / Online Backup Service Launches

[ezra]

Note: Asigra doesn't allow links here and so I have disabled them.

Here is a paragraph from my post at BackupReview.

Google just announced the release of the much rumoured Google Drive (also known as GDrive) earlier this morning. The tool will allow users to create, share, collaborate, and backup data online. We have not tried Google Drive yet, but from the description, it looks like that it will be a direct competitor to DropBox, Box, SugarSync, and other similar products. Google promises that this is just the beginning and more to come in the future.

Google has made the pricing of the Google Drive a bit cheaper than the competition. The first 5 GB is free; and 25 GB is for $2.49 per month; and 100 GB is $4.99 per month. If users upgrade to any one of these paid accounts, their Gmail account will be automatically increased to 25 GB (from the current limit of 10 GB).

What do you think? Is this bad or good for the industry? I think, that it is good when bigger companies like Google get in the bandwagon, as it is a further seal of approval that the cloud backup market is growing. If the market was not that hot, Google would have not launched this product.

I believe that GDrive's launch will create a lot of buzz in the public and indirectly benefit all companies in the backup space.

...

[Samantha Morris]

As per the community rules, links that have the sole purpose of driving members to other sites is not allowed.

[Samantha Morris]

Google Drive acts as cloud storage and they definitely have a play against competing offerings such as DropBox and Microsoft SkyDrive, albeit they're a little bit late to the game.

It'll be interesting to see if Google Drive is combined with an incremental sync-based backup service, similar to that of Apple's iCloud. Whether files are stored on PCs, Mac or Android devices, data gets backed up and the user would have transparent access to everything that has been backed up from those devices to the cloud that can be accessed from anywhere. Add backup scheduling and it'd be perfect.

They haven't released a lot of details, so it'll be interesting to see how the service will develop.

[Jamesc]

I think the biggest air of confusion so far is over the terms and conditions. There seem to be lots of discussions going on across the internet as to the extent of what google will be able to do with your data. I guess its a question of time will tell.

I cant see it being a huge issue for most backup companies, have you ever tried to get hold of google by phone when you had a problem with one of their products? Nightmare!

[webdevmatt]

Like Samantha says, it will be interesting to see where this goes, but Drive is no more than a re branding of Google Docs with a nice new logo, name and marketing behind it. Making the consumer aware of easy to use cloud storage solutions available and who better to offer it than Google.

Be careful about putting your confidential data up there un-encrypted though:

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives...ogle-drive.php

[eTegrity]

Well we must keep in mind it is not a rentention based backup mechenisim but more a storage place for data, so depending on what you want it for I think it is a good thing for that but not a proper backup and rentention storage system. Remmebr it is not about the backup but the recovery that matters and if I deleted something off the google drive and want to restore it is there any rentention? time will tell if it lives up to the claims it is making. Just my two cents

[MattG]

Google Drive seems like a rebranding and upgrade of Google Docs, as a way to compete with SkyDrive and DropBox (very popular). Google, like Microsoft, has a way to capture (and hold prisoner) their audience of users. It will be interesting to see new Android Apps that will compete with Apples iCloud.

And... as Matt warns (WebDevMatt), be care of un-encrypted data storage in the cloud.

Next up, what will Facebook do?

[wcoetzee]

I found this on the web the other day http://www.ifttt.com "IF THIS THEN THAT" (IFTTT). Check out lifehacker review http://lifehacker.com/ifttt/

But basicaly it allows you to trigger an action, the twist is that you basicaly stiching your cloud apps together with some If,Then,Else logic. So now you have the power to automate your cloud apps.

I.E. Using one of the hundreds of IFTTT Recipes you can automaticaly copy files from dropbox to box, http://ifttt.com/recipes/46554

This could constitute as a simple cloud2cloud backup service.

Obviously this is very basic but for personal needs it could be a fun option. IFTTT allows for many cloud automation plays, twitter to evernote, gmail to dropbox instagram to box, weather to sms.

This shows the power of APIs. I'm going to test some ofthese out