Google has tripled its cloud storing service Google Drive free space to 15 gigabytes and lowered the service's price to attract new customers and reassure them of its security.
Google Drive is a file storage service that allows users store and share files, and perform collaborative revision of files. Though the service looked significantly accommodating to users' file storing needs, it has been greatly affected by the safety and security issues brought by Edward Snowden's revelations.
However, Google's director of security for Google Apps Eran Feigenbaum defended the service telling InformationWeek that "the cloud can be as safe as -- or in many cases, safer than -- storing data on-premise." In an act to reassure customers, the company made a financial case for the service by lowering its cost while increasing its cloud storage space by 200 percent.
Google Drive now offers a 15- gigabyte storage space for free - up from five gigabytes. From $60, the company now offers its 100-gigabyte storage space for $24 per year and 10-terabyte space for $1,200 per year.
Its rivals, on the other hand, have their own tiers, too. Apple iCloud offers a five-gigabyte storage space for free, a 10-gigabyte space for $20 per year and a maximum of 50-gigabyte for $100 per year. Microsoft OneDrive offers a free seven-gigabyte storage space, 50-gigabyte space for $25 per year, and 200-gigabyte for $100 per year. Dropbox offers a free storage space of two gigabytes. But for those who are willing to pay, the San Francisco, Calif.-based file hosting service offers a 100-gigabyte storage space for $99 per year and 500 gigabytes for $499 per year.
"Thanks to a number of recent infrastructure improvements, we're able to make it more affordable for you to keep everything safe and easy to reach on any device, from anywhere," said Google product management director Scott Johnston in a blog post.
