On-line storage heats up but do we have upstream speeds?
A few weeks back, a leaked Google document indicated that the company was planning an on-line storage service dubbed G-Drive, allowing users to store content anywhere (something achievable via various unofficial GMail tools, we know). Yahoo had their own attempt at this at one time: the now defunct Y! Drive. The Google document made their ambitions clear:
"With infinite storage, we can house all user files, including: emails, web history, pictures, bookmarks, etc and make it accessible from anywhere (any device, any platform, etc). We already have efforts in this direction in terms of GDrive, GDS, Lighthouse, but all of them face bandwidth and storage constraints today."Not to be outdone, Fortune has a piece on Microsoft's ambitions that contains reference to their own competing on-line drive service.
"Microsoft is planning to use its server farms to offer anyone huge amounts of online storage of digital data With Live Drive, all your information—movies, music, tax information, a high-definition videoconference you had with your grandmother, whatever—could be accessible from anywhere, on any device."Om Malik points to this Microsoft Watch article that has more detail on the service, allegedly to be called "Live Drive." According to the report, the plan is to create a "digital safe-deposit box, hosted by Microsoft." Would you be comfortable using these services for anything but the most routine of files? And does your connection have the upstream capacity to really use it?