Business News Holding

Tag: cloud-service

  • Box partners with Microsoft to bring You Office Online document Creation and Editing

    Box partners with Microsoft to bring You Office Online document Creation and Editing

    Box for Office Online2

    Good news to Box users, as they can now create and edit Microsoft Office documents using Office Online without having to leave the cloud storage service. This new merger is part of the plan to expand Microsoft Cloud Storage Partner Program.

    According to Box’s David Still, there are already more than a billion Excel, Word, and PowerPoint files in Box and users can now use the recently announced service to create and even edit Office files all inside Box. Any changes you make to an Office Online document/file will automatically be saved on the cloud, so you do not have to worry about having to re-upload the files again to Box.

    In the press release, Box’s CEO Aaron Levie says that the new model for enterprise productivity depends on creating seamless, device agnostic connections between the core applications that people use to get work done. With over a billion users, Levie admits that the merger with Office is a crucial move in their growth and also in the transformation of the way people work and do business.

    The new announcement combines Box’s robust storage and sharing features with Office’s productivity.

    This new feature is already available to Box business users with an Office 365 license and all Box users with a personal account.

     

  • Vodafone and Dropbox Team up on Cloud Storage

    Vodafone and Dropbox Team up on Cloud Storage

    vodafone-dropbox

    Vodafone and Dropbox are partnering to provide the telco’s Android and iPhone users with free cloud storage for a year.

    Starting this month, new Vodafone users will have 25 GB of cloud storage space on Dropbox. This service will be available to Vodafone’s Android and iPhone users. A majority of Vodafone’s Android phones will come preloaded with the Dropbbox app.

    What’s the implication? Well, Vodafone users can now count on extra space that can also make switching over to a new phone a much easier process as all you have to do is save all your videos, photos, and all your files on your old phone to Dropbox and then just sign in to your Dropbox app in your new phone and all your files will be there waiting for you.

    Vodafone also said that it will use Dropbox as its platform for its Backup+ service that allows Vodafone users to backup messages, multimedia content, and contacts on the cloud. The Backup+ service will start rolling out by the end of March, 2015 and will be ready for use over the coming months.

    The partnership between Dropbox and Vodafone is not entirely a new concept as just last year around October 02 entered a partnership with Box to resell the cloud storage service to SMEs.

     

  • Google Drive and its Game-Changing Strategy

    Google Drive has recently unleashed a storage structure that is set to change the way people view cloud storage. They have now made it possible to have online storage no matter the size. For the first 15Gb per month no fee will be charged, $1.99 for 100GB, $9.99 for 1TB and $99.99 for 10TB and above. Their new price structure makes it easier to afford online storage especially for large companies.

    Let’s compare Google drive data plan with other plans. Sugar sync charges $55 for a terabyte of data of up to three users while this cost $10 a month at Google drive. Dropbox charges $9.99 for a month’s 100 GB while Google drive offers the same space at around $2 a month. Apple charges $8.33 a month for 50 GB storage while you can be able to double that storage size for a much lesser fee. The most popular cloud service S3 cloud service offers a terabyte of storage space at $85 a month while on Google drive a terabyte cost around $10. Finally Microsoft which offer annual data plans offers 50 GB at $25 for the year while one can be able to get much more data storage and almost the same price.

    With the changes in prices in Google drives data plans, the other companies will try to lower their costs hence making online data storage that was once viewed as an expensive venture more affordable to many people and companies at a regular fee. Now more money will go into the company as opposed to it going into storage Plans for the company. This will be beneficial in making cloud storage one of the most used storage options and thereby lessening the use of traditional storage means. Just by simply changing their price structure, Google drive has been able to revolutionize how cloud storage is viewed.

  • Amazon Lowers Its Cloud Prices after Google Slash

    Recent cut by Amazon of its cloud prices are still not enough to rival Google's cloud storage prices. The slash by amazon comes after Google announced a reduction of its storage costs – Google made a reduction on its pricing by a very high margin compared to those of their competitors such as Microsoft, Rackspace, and HP.

    Google newly introduced "sustained use" pricing model has enabled it to pass savings onto users of its cloud. This compares to Amazons model, which guarantee customers saving after they pay upfront.

    Amazon`s senior vice president defended its stand on not responding to Google new model. He said that the company lowered their prices on many occasions without any external or competitive pressure.

    Amazon and Google seem to be at the same level though their prices on key areas such as storage are still significantly different. Google has a flat rate pricing for storage while Amazon does tiered pricing.

    Amazon`s price change indicates an emerging competition among businesses offering cloud computing services. Amazon's strategy, using lower prices, has enabled it to build a successful brand. Google price change is a threat, one that deserves a response, to its cloud business margins. This comes at a time when Google and Microsoft have made continuous investment aimed at grabbing a portion of the revenue streaming into Amazon Web Services.

    Both companies have being experiencing problems that affect their core businesses. Google, for instance, has closed some of its business such as Google Reader and Wave and at times made price changes without warning their customers. This has negatively affected their customers who are now skeptical of their innovations.

    Microsoft despite having the most successful software business customers are suspicious of their products as they will be difficult to license or be costly.
    Amazon`s core business-retail- ensures use of cheap storage, ideal cloud computing, and relatively low margins.