Is The Cloud Really Unlimited? Not In The Way You Think…
One of the hallmarks of the digital era is our sense that it doesn’t take up space. We hoard photos, keep emails forever, and mindlessly upgrade our storage capacity each time it gets full—with the expectation that there will always be more room.
For a while, this assumption seemed safe. But we have reason to believe times are changing, based on the altered policies of some major tech companies. As a number of outlets recently reported, Amazon has added itself to a list of companies that’s reneged on its promise of unlimited cloud-based storage to an unlimited number of consumers. As Fast Company reported, “Storage now costs $60 per terabyte, up to 30 TB, and Amazon has added a smaller 100 GB tier for $12 per year. Existing users who’ve stored more than 1 TB will have 180 days to choose a bigger plan or remove their data before Amazon deletes it, although Amazon Prime subscribers will still get unlimited storage for their photos.”
Movers and Shakers of Cloud Storage
Officially, the major companies that have made this move—a list that includes Microsoft, Mozy, and Bitcasa—claim it’s simply because their customers do not need so much space. According to USA Today, “Amazon says the vast majority of its customer base, 82%, only used a small portion of backup, around 100 GBs worth.” While this is largely true, it’s somewhat of an artful dodge of the facts. When more companies and individuals are switching to the cloud, could it be that the idea of unlimited cloud storage is rather unsustainable?
Fast Company certainly seems to think so. Of the decision, they wrote that Amazon’s reasoning behind the decision is that the company “didn’t want to keep paying for people who had the audacity to use what they were given. ‘Unlimited’ may be an effective marketing hook, but it’s always unsustainable in the long run.”
Bloated Clouds
The reason for the unsustainable nature of unlimited storage is simple: data does, in fact, take up space. The servers, real estate and maintenance required to store and protect millions of people’s data is significant. Of course, for the average consumer, data is out of sight, out of mind. This detached attitude means we don’t prioritize or sort through our data —we keep it all, a major downside for the storage companies.
Similar to the promise of unlimited data from mobile phone providers, every so often a cloud storage provider promises unlimited storage—usually to gain a competitive edge. Insiders say that the marketing allure of “unlimited” isn’t the only reason companies seem to make this promise. However, they fall short of delivering on their promises. As Fast Company put it, “Yes, they’re often motivated by the marketing power that ’unlimited’ brings, but they also legitimately think they can pull it off due to incorrect assumptions about consumer behavior. Before long, these companies realize they can’t hold up their end of the bargain, seemingly shocked by how much storage people actually consume.”
As consumers, we are somewhat predictable. If we’ve paid something, we are likely to be more motivated to use it. Even though many of us don’t “need” unlimited cloud storage. The few that feel compelled to get their money’s worth ruin it for the rest of us. In addition, the detached relationship many have with data (and where it goes when it’s in the elusive “cloud”) means that we fail to think about the important fact that each gigabyte of data we store does, in fact, have a cost.