Google has answered Microsoft's boost of Cloud storage space by announcing it would give customers of its Google Apps for Business an unlimited amount of storage for an additional $5 per month per user.
Sundar Pichai, the Google executive who oversees Android, Chrome and Google Apps - and who led the keynote at the company's I/O developer's conference - announced the unlimited storage for Google Drive for Work more than two hours into the long presentation.
Google Drive for Work has been the name for the Cloud-based storage service linked to Google Apps for Business, the search company's online application suite. Previously, Google included 30GB of storage for each user - Google Apps for Business runs $US5 per user per month, or $US50 annually - and charged an additional $US5 per user per month for Google Apps Vault, an archiving, document preservation and e-discovery add-on.
Vault did not add more storage to each user's allowance; instead, companies had to pay for the additional space. An extra 1TB (terabyte) ran $US9.99 per month per user.
Google maintained the price of Vault, but threw in unlimited storage as a bonus. For a total of $US10 per user per month, business customers receive Apps for Business, Vault and unlimited storage.
Companies that have been paying for all Apps for Business, Vault and an extra terabyte will thus halve their monthly bill and get a boost to unlimited storage in the bargain. Customers that have not bought Vault, but have purchased a terabyte, will pay 33 per cent less under the new deal.
One caveat is that plans sold to customers with fewer than five users will be capped at 1TB per user.
Firms that stick with the basic $US5 per month per user Google Apps for Business plan will continue to receive 30GB of storage gratis.
The Mountain View, Calif. company's move came just two days after rival Microsoft -- the two have long been locked in a enterprise productivity battle -- announced it was boosting the free storage allotment for Office 365 users to 1TB.
Google will include unlimited storage rights to its Apps for Business suite for an additional $US5 per user per month. (Image: Google.)
Office 365 is Microsoft's "rent-not-own" software subscription plan that features the latest versions of the applications in Office 2013 (Windows) and Office for Mac 2011 (OS X).
Google's Apps for Business website has been changed to reflect the addition of unlimited storage. Current customers can upgrade via their administrative console.
Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at @gkeizer, on Google+ or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed. His email address is gkeizer@computerworld.com.
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