Microsoft increases OneDrive Business storage size to 1TB from 25GB
OneDrive for Business was launched as a standalone service by Microsoft on April 1, 2014. The main difference to Microsoft's OneDrive service -- formerly known as SkyDrive -- is that it has been designed with business use in mind.
Features exclusive to OneDrive for Business are multifactor authentication support, SSO/ADFS/Directory sync support, auditing and reporting functionality, advanced administration, and built-in standards compliance.
The price per user per month was set to $5, which is identical to how much Google charges for Google Apps for business users, and a total of 25 Gigabyte of space per user was provided as well.
If you compare that to Google Apps, you will notice that it is 5 GB less than what Google offers, as it provides every Google Apps user with 30 Gigabyte of storage.
Two promotional deals are available that last through September 2014 which cut the monthly per user price in half in that period. You pay only $2.50 per user per month for the time being.
Customers who use Office with Software Assurance (SA) or Office 365 ProPlus pay only $1.50 per user per month.
Additional storage space is available for $0.20 per GB for OneDrive for Business users, but a new announcement makes it unlikely that many companies who use OneDrive will take Microsoft up on the offer.
Microsoft announced yesterday that it has increased the storage space available to all OneDrive for Business users from 25 Gigabyte to 1 Terabyte.
That's a massive increase of storage space available, and while some companies may still be in need for more, it is very likely that the majority won't anymore.
Office 365 ProPlus customers get the 1TB of storage space per user as part of their subscription.
Microsoft notes that the changes will roll out over the course of the coming months. That's the main reason why you may still find old pricing information listed on the OneDrive plans and pricing page linked above.
It is interesting to note that this may make OneDrive for Business attractive to OneDrive users who have purchased additional Gigabytes of storage.
100 GB of storage is currently priced at $50 annually. If those users switch to OneDrive for Business, they pay $60 for that per year per user, but will get 1 TB of space instead plus all the additional features exclusive to the business edition.
You can check out Microsoft's roadmap for OneDrive for Business here.
Isn’t Onedrive a cloud storage system? And for that matter, many free ones begin at 50 Gb on free accounts. With additional space and tools available with monthly/yearly subscriptions. Two such are Mediafire and Firedrive. Mediafire is USA based while Firedrive is UK based. Both offer 50 Gb base storage on freebie accounts, but both offer different incentives when upgrading to paid accounts. Both offer drop box storage and removal of ads in paid accounts but users with any sort of Ad blocking add-on or extension will never see any.
I’ve been with Mediafire since they opened in 2006 and my connection speed to them is relatively the same as my ISP speed which is currently the fastest for a residential service plan (75M/s), but my connection to Firedrive drops to less than half (28M/s). With Mediafire if you merge your account with Facebook, download their mobile app and a few other incentives you can increase the size of your freebie account storage. The bonus I like with Firedrive is they have chat and messaging ability between drop box users. The freebie account even has 1 drop box available.
Mediafire’s drop box has no chat or messaging ability. But they’ve been out longer. Firedrive is relatively new (2013) and to build themselves a user base they bought out a competitor (Putlocker). I’m still in the test phase for Firedrive, and even though my initial speed tests seem about the same results, I may move over to them once my year long subscription with Mediafire ends. I like the ability to instant chat or message between drop box users. Hate having to open an e-mail client in another tab to add comments to uploads or drop box files.
“If those users switch to OneDrive for Business, they pay $60 for that per month”
I don’t follow you, where did that $60 come from? Is there a minimum number of users for OneDrive Business?
An additional question: any word about whether this offer will be valid worldwide?
My mistake, I meant to say per year per user as it is $5 per month per user. While I cannot say with 100% certainty, it appears to be available in all countries where Office 365 is offered.