Cloud storage has reached both the capacity and price where it's a viable alternative to local storage.
Microsoft has announced a number of changes to their cloud services. Free storage has been increased from 7GB to 15GB - effectively catching up Google.
OneDrive users who refer friends will still receive up to 5 GB (in 500 MB increments) for each friend who accepts an invitation. Additionally, OneDrive will give you 3 GB just for using the camera backup feature.
In addition, they've also increased the capacity available with their paid Office 365 services from 20GB to a massive 1TB - a 50x increase.
The pricing for Office 365 is
- AU$9.00/month for Office 365 Personal
- AU$12.00/month for Office 365 Home (up to 5 people)
- AU$99.00/4yr for University
If the increases aren’t enough, you can also purchase additional capacity. Prices have been reduced to just AU$2.00/month for 100 GB of storage and AU$4.00/ month for 200 GB of storage. These were previously $8.99 and $13.99 per month respectively.
These sorts of price drops are effectively removing cost as a possible impediment to using cloud storage. A decent 1TB will cost close to $100 and then you'll have the operating costs associated with that device.
Cloud storage has reached both the capacity and price where it's a viable alternative to local storage, if you have the bandwidth
