Latin America. There are people who believe that one day all storage will be free. Several leading Internet companies are already offering cloud storage services for their photos and documents at no cost or with reduced value for the service. It is believed that in the future these costs will be zero for the user, as long as suppliers compete for customer preference in the so-called "Race to Zero".
And this is where it is worth reflecting on whether you can really reach a totally free model. While the storage service may be free for the customer, the storage infrastructure and data services will remain costly for the provider. Building hyper-scale data centers costs billions of dollars, and cloud providers will have to find other services to pay for them or take advantage of the data contained in that "free" storage.
We must consider that when a photo is taken from a cell phone and the image is saved in a public cloud service, information about where and when a photo was taken is saved. In addition, the images in the photos can be analyzed, which can reveal information about users' preferences. In this way, free storage is offered to gain some kind of control over your personal data, which can offset the cost for these cloud providers.
This is free storage by targeted advertising, which can be an acceptable trade to store your family photos. In fact it is possible to appreciate the notification when your favorite shoe style is for sale at a local store or website. However, it is certainly not acceptable for enterprise storage users.
Greg Knierierman, who works for HDS and has a successful podcast ("SpeakingTech") on The Register, has been blogging about the need for companies to control their data. It cites a recent survey by The Economist, where 87% of respondents reported that their top management is very concerned about the security and privacy of corporate data. I am sure that business users will not use free storage unless the provider can ensure the security and privacy of the data.
It should be noted that offering free storage is a way to keep customers longer, as it is difficult to move large amounts of data from one cloud to another over the Internet. It becomes even more difficult if the cloud provider uses a proprietary application. It's not far-fetched to think that public cloud providers can even go beyond zero, and offer rebates or other incentives to entice users to store data in their cloud as a way to lock them into other services that do cause fees.
One way to avoid the free storage trap is to use a content platform that provides all the controls to store, access, and protect data no matter what cloud service you use. Hitachi Content Platform, for example, allows you to manage all content data from the firewall, store data anywhere, including the public cloud, and access it anywhere with proper authorization and authentication. The client controls the encryption of the data wherever it resides and Crypto can be used without fear of leaving any data behind.
Free cloud storage is just another tool that individuals and businesses can use to manage their storage needs, as long as they understand their data needs and trade-offs. Nothing is free. It cannot be measured in money, but it will always require some compensation. It may mean that the customer relinquishes some kind of control.
This week I'm traveling in India, and I'll be able to communicate with my family and talk to my grandchildren, for free, using Face Time. While the service is free, now my whole family has an Apple device, that's the company's profit. I can share documents and collaborate with my Hitachi colleagues around the world with the use of Wi-Fi in my hotel room with Hitachi's HCP Anywhere, knowing that, in this way, the documents are secure.
Finally, I believe that the greatest risk in the "Race to Zero" is the sustainability of this business model. Constant innovation is required to stay ahead of the game. While the West focuses on public cloud providers like Amazon and Google, there are other cloud companies in other geographies like China's AliBaba Group, which could be much more aggressive and innovative in this race.
Text written by Hu Yoshida, CTO of Hitachi Data Systems.
