Microsoft shrinks OneDrive storage for Office 365 and free users

[edutech4schools]

Sorry if this has been posted, i did search.

 

Just found this on Engadget and wanted to pass on

 

Microsoft shrinks OneDrive storage for Office 365 and free users

[Steve21]

That's a shame, was debating using that for backups haha

 

Steve

[unixman_again]

It was always going to come back and bite them - offer free unlimited storage and people will use it.

 

At Microsoft 'unlimited cloud storage' really means one terabyte - The Register

[CyberNerd]

Will Google follow suite ?

[localzuk]

I've just signed up with HubiC.com. 10TB of storage for £50pa. Pretty darn cheap. (If anyone else feels like signing up, I have a referral code: UPFNLC

 

Has its own application which will do daily/weekly/etc backups, as well as keeping them separate from your day to day data you keep synced up with it.

[TIOAOA]

Is it just me or does that seem to good to be true. Anything I should worry about before I go off and read the terms and conditions in full ?

 

Thanks for the tip thou @localzuk if this pans out I owe you a beer

[localzuk]

Its ran by OVH, a french hosting specialist. They're a big company - earned €240m last year, for example.

 

I didn't find any catches!

[Arthur]

Will Google follow suite?

I can't see Google doing the same since their unlimited Drive storage is only available for businesses that sign up for Google Apps Unlimited with a minimum of five users (so at least £33/month) and Google Apps for Education customers.

 

Amazon might however. Some people in the US are buying unlimited cloud storage for $60/year and storing terabytes of videos for their Plex servers.

 

https://amc.ovh/2015/08/13/infinite-media-server.html

[ZeroHour]

Its ran by OVH, a french hosting specialist. They're a big company - earned €240m last year, for example.

 

I didn't find any catches!

 

It looks nice but being honest OVH are on my crap list because of their subsidiary Kimsufi which seems to have a huge amount of hackers that scan for holes and attempt to brute force accounts.

[gshaw]

The unlimited > 1TB downgrade isn't great from a marketing point of view but makes sense, was surprised when they made the unlimited announcement in the first place actually.

 

However dropping the free consumer allowance to a measly 5GB and actively removing storage from users is below the belt, really shot yourselves in the foot this time Microsoft. I'll be moving all my backups off the service and either onto Google Drive or something a bit more left-field. They've also managed to wreck the whole "ecosystem" for consumers using MS cloud services for personal use in one ill-advised move, Apple & Google will be very happy right now I imagine.

Edited November 3, 2015 by gshaw

[CyberNerd]

^ better they do it now than the system falling over because of an underestimation

[gshaw]

If they're failing because of an 10GB per user then something is seriously wrong at Microsoft...

[matt40k]

Its not an problem with azure infrastructure not coping, its not doing something that is unprofitable and doesn't add much value. Why offer TBs of space for free/peanuts when it costs you and people (who wont abuse it) will pay a premium for it

[gshaw]

Ecosystem, get consumers on one platform then they're more likely to buy other services that integrate with it. It's likely a lot of users will likely move to Google Drive instead and with it Google Docs instead of Office 365 and so on.

[matt40k]

Fact was giving users free space wasn't getting them to buy other services - Microsoft make decisions based on data, they'll throw money at something but if it doesn't have return they'll drop it. Office 365 in terms of MS Office is WAAAY more advance then Google Docs, people buy Office 365 for Office 365, not for the free space. Case and point, the number of users using Office 365 vs OneDrive subscriptions.

[gshaw]

I think you underestimate what the average user looks for, one provider gives a customer more than the other they'll go for the bigger number.

 

Microsoft argued they made the Windows 8.0 UI based on data and everyone saw that train wreck coming a mile off.

 

I'm always amazed when people defend companies making services more expensive for consumers, you're welcome to give Microsoft your money but I'll shift my data elsewhere and advise others to do the same. Shame really.

[matt40k]

No, i think people have abused it, they are using it for backups and microsoft have gone, hang on, no, this is for your office docs - your powerpoints, word docs, spreadsheets, photos, etc. Not your vm backups. Azure storage is for your backups.

 

Imho your underestimating the office package- excel has over a billion users, pretty much every major company users excel. Its an incredible visualisation tool, if your not using fully, fine, use google docs or whatever. Just saying hey i'm using google apps now because i can backup my vms for "free" is stupid. If i look at my home pc, my work, not my apps, are on onedrive, this is the things i cannot just redownload, this isnt tbs of data. At the end of the day, if google drive works for your backups, fine, nothing stopping you having both google drive and office365, they work fine together. I just think its bad idea to abuse it - most likely they'll can it in the future- still let the good times roll i guess until Google does the excel cost analysis of services

[matt40k]

Microsoft argued they made the Windows 8.0 UI based.

 

Again

 

they'll throw money at something but if it doesn't have return they'll drop it

 

Also remember financial is easier then opinion. Do you like this new UI? Yes, oh wait, no apps support it, take that back - still it was a stepping stone, like Vista with UAC. It got people to seriously look at touch for windows - even though touch has been around for ages - pretty sure touch was mentioned on the xp installer splashs as it installs

[Arthur]

No, I think people have abused it

Surely it's impossible to abuse unlimited cloud storage because unlimited means without limits?

Edited November 3, 2015 by Arthur

[gshaw]

MYes according to the MS article some people were using hundreds of TB... so if they scale back just the unlimited bit that's one thing.

 

What logic is taking 10GB off of users who showed good faith in MS consumer offerings? You say financial analysis but can you put a value on reputation and market share? Altering the terms of existing customers with retrospective changes is really shoddy practice imo. As someone else said, bait and switch.

 

After all the work getting Win10 ready two crazy decisions have now painted a picture of MS as a company not to be trusted; first the OTT telemetry enabled by default in Win10 and now removing storage users have had for years.

 

Was interesting to see which cloud provider would blink first, is this the start of the (attempted) monetisation of vendors' consumer cloud platforms?

Edited November 3, 2015 by gshaw

[matt40k]

Surely it's impossible to abuse unlimited cloud storage because unlimited means without limits?

 

Depends what the context was for unlimited, unlimited office files is one thing, unlimited 1tb vm backups is another. Unlimited broadband from virgin media just means they dont count your usage, you have a free for all with your neighbors for your cab connection.

 

Plus side they aren't sacrificing speed as a means to bottlenecking you

[matt40k]

have now painted a picture of MS as a company not to be trusted; first the OTT telemetry enabled by default in Win10

 

Mmm, i trust ms more then google, microsoft makes the bulk of its money from the money i give them, google makes the bulk of its money sell my data.

 

Ott telemetry? What gps location? Not fussed, if they are using it to tell me as i pass sainsburys to pick up milk when i leave work, great, or that i forgot to put my out of office on at work cause i'm still at home ill, great. The point is i can switch it off if i wish, my data isnt sold and its always MY data which i have control over.

[CyberNerd]

The point is i can switch it off if i wish, my data isnt sold and its always MY data which i have control over.

 

Did you read the T+C's ?

[matt40k]

Which ones are you referring to directly?

[CyberNerd]

THe ones where MS say they will share your data with third parties.