Google is expected to launch an online information storage service in an attempt to become the central depository for the world’s digital data…
“Web search behemoth Google is reportedly working on adding online data storage to its list of services. But, as frequently is the case with hosted storage — especially with Google — the subject of privacy raises questions…”
Google Inc. is preparing to take the covers off its own brand of hosted-storage services, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.
“Offering would compete with recent products from rivals Microsoft, Amazon.com and Facebook.”
Google may be able to add storage to the list of services it provides for businesses and consumers, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal Tuesday. The service would further the current push toward cloud computing or network-hosted applications.
The service would allow people to store any kind of data on Google servers and access it from any computer with an Internet connection. An unspecified amount of storage would be offered for free with additional amounts available for a fee, the report said.
The product would be a kind of umbrella service for the storage Google already offers with some of its Web-based applications, such as e-mail and photo sharing, the Wall Street Journal reported, quoting anonymous sources. No timetable was given, and there was no guarantee that future developments would not cause Google to shift tack or cancel the project.
A spokesman for Google, the dominant force in internet advertising, refused to be drawn on speculation that the company will release a rival web-based system in a matter of weeks. However, he did say: “Storage is an important component of making web applications fit easily into consumers’ and business users’ lives.”
The news is hardly new and certainly not surprising. Rumors of a hosted storage offering from Google, dubbed “Gdrive,” have circulated for a while, would allow users to store digital files such as music tracks and photographs on the internet and access them through any web browser.
The move would raise the stakes in Google’s rivalry with Microsoft, whose productivity applications rule the desktop world. Google has been releasing hosted e-mail, word processing, spreadsheets, calendar, and other programs that compete with Microsoft. While consumers are attracted to the online services of Google’s, corporations have yet to sign up for security and functionality reasons.
Analysts agree that answers are needed to consumers’ data problems, ranging from how to keep highly sensitive information secure to avoiding the loss of holiday photographs. It is estimated, for instance, that more than 270 billion digital photos will be taken this year.
“It is a natural extension of the fact that Google operates some of the world’s largest data centers and has unique value-added features that it can add in terms of search and organization of the data,” said Kurt Scherf, principal analyst at Parks Associates. “It looks like nice synergy, based on what they are already doing.”
Online storage and backup services are not new to the Web. Google rivals Microsoft and Yahoo offer services called SkyDrive and Briefcase, respectively. In addition, there are a variety of niche players, such as Box.net; and companies like Mozy that provide a fairly extensive backup service.
In January, Microsoft announced a hardware-based solution with its Home Server platform, a scaled-down version of the servers that companies use to store data.
Microsoft also offers a hosted storage offering of its own, which it renamed “Windows Live SkyDrive” this summer and has readied Office Live Workspace, a free online tool for viewing, sharing and storing, but not editing, Office documents online.
Google executives espouse a digital world where people can access their data from anywhere in what is called “cloud computing.”
With this cloud approach, users could access their data, ideally through a Google search box, from multiple computers and handheld devices with a password, breaking the traditional computing barriers of allowing users to access their data only from their machines.
The cloud concept took flight roughly five years ago with SAAS (software as a service) provider Salesforce.com, which delivers applications to customers through the Internet, and Amazon.com, which has been offering servers and storage services through the Web.
Google, however, believes it can differentiate itself by developing a user interface that is easier to use than other services. One obstacle that Google may not find a way around is the slow upload times for many broadband connections, particularly DSL.
If a person, for example, creates large video files, then it may take hours, if not more than a day, to upload files to Google, like any other online storage service.
“Google has their finger in lots and lots of pies, and this is sort of a natural compliment to some of the things it is already offering,” said Gordon Haff, a senior analyst at Illuminata. “It makes sense that if you are going to offer all these things that use storage to tie storage itself in as well.”
For Google, which has already made a substantial investment to build its data centers, this service is an opportunity to use its infrastructure as a revenue-generating service, Scherf said.
“It also gets Google one step closer to becoming a full-fledged applications company that is more consumer-facing. That is a benefit to them, as they are definitely pursuing the strategy of offering network-hosted applications, including both software and storage,” added Scherf.
Last year Google inadvertently leaked an internal memo that made plain the scale of its ambitions over online data storage — a strategy that would apparently make computer hard drives all but defunct.
“With infinite storage, we can house all user files, including e-mails, web history, pictures, bookmarks, etc and make it accessible from anywhere [any device, any platform, etc],” the document said.
Despite its vast resources, Google is a late entrant into the hosted-storage arena, observers noted. Microsoft Corp. in August announced its free 500MB online storage service dubbed Windows Live Skydrive.
Another Google rival, Amazon.com, last month guaranteed 99.9% uptime for its year-old S3 online storage offering, while Facebook in September unveiled its open Data Store API program. At about the same time, Apple upgraded its .Mac service to include 10 Gbytes for $100 per year.
Even EMC Corp. has driven a stake into the hosted-storage landscape with its October agreement to buy start-up Berkeley Data Systems Inc. and its popular Mozy online backup business for $76 million.
Google has already started adding extra storage for users of its Gmail Web-based e-mail service, which has been burning up capacity because of large digital files being stored such as photos and attachments.
Privacy activists are expected to complain that Google already has access to too much information and any new data storage service would be launched into a freshly febrile atmosphere. Fears over data security soared last week when the Government lost personal details of 25 million Britons in the post.
However, Google insisted that the public would trade access to some of its information for improved online services, such as adverts targeted to an individual’s interests.
Executives at Microsoft will also be wary of Google’s plans. Analysts have argued that the long-anticipated GDrive system will make it easier for users to abandon Windows, Microsoft’s dominant operating system.
“The move will escalate the rivalry between Microsoft and Google over how best to steward the explosion in domestic digital data.”
In addition, Google’s status as the Internet’s leading search engine will give the service a boost among consumers.
“For consumers, it is the benefit of knowing that the Google name behind the service means that finding and organizing their data is going to be enhanced because Google is really proficient at it,” said Scherf. “It is also an intriguing consumer product — British Telecom offers a Digital Vault service that is apparently doing quite well with consumers.”
It is unclear how Google’s new offering would compete in price and features with its competitors’ services. But the growing number of online storage options indicates vendors see a lucrative opportunity. In the case of Google, knowing more of what is in a person’s hard drive could broaden the possibilities for targeted advertising.
Should Google roll out a storage system, it will have to ensure users that the service is safe and secure and also that it has instituted sufficient safeguards to protect users’ privacy.