Cloud storage is becoming more cost effective and reliable as companies vie to differentiate themselves in a crowded marketplace.
Microsoft’s solution to this problem for the last year has been to sell smaller amounts of cloud storage at competitive prices, and bundle its Microsoft Office suite in with unlimited storage for Word, Excel and Powerpoint.
However, in a blog post yesterday, Microsoft announced that because some users have been abusing the unlimited storage option, the company will no longer be offering unlimited OneDrive storage to Office 365 customers. Microsoft found that a handful of customers were backing up multiple PCs, movie collections, and DVR recordings, totalling 75TB per user.
Because Microsoft says the goal of OneDrive is to benefit the majority of users, the storage and pricing structure for the platform will be changing starting in early 2016. It’s also likely that the operating cost of storing 75TB of data for some users was not cost effective for the company.
Changes include:
- Unlimited Office 365 plans will now only get 1 TB of storage. Customers storing more than 1 TB currently will be able to keep the extra storage for one year. Customers will be able to request a pro-rated refund if Office 365 no longer meets their needs.
- 100 GB and 200 GB paid plans will be disappearing for new users, and a 50 GB plan for $1.99 per month will be the new low tier.
- OneDrive storage free accounts will lower from 15 GB to 5 GB, and the 15 GB camera roll storage bonus will be discontinued. If you have more than 5 GB of files in your OneDrive, you can redeem a coupon for a free 1-year subscription to Office 365 with 1 TB of storage, and will have at least 1 year before your 15 GB of storage disappears.
Microsoft has set up an FAQ page explaining the new plans and changes.
If you’re storing files in OneDrive, it should be a straightforward process when it comes to finding out if these changes will affect you.
[source]OneDrive Blog[/source]
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