Google launched its new Cloud Storage Nearline service on July 23, Thursday offering 100 petabytes (100 million gigabytes) for the package. As the Google service moves from its beta version to general public availability, the tech giant is rivaling Amazon Web Services' $6 billion cloud storage, and other competitors in the industry.
Nearline is worlds apart from Google Drive, which provides users with a measly 15 GB of cloud storage at no charge. Business Employees get twice that figure.
Like the competition, Nearline offers high-data archiving and backup services. However, one key benefit is super-fast data retrieval that Google promises will not take hours or even days unlike rivals' services, according to PC World.
Nearline was launched in March. Promised features include 99 percent uptime, lifecycle management, and an updated partner ecosystem, according to PC World.
Then there is the 100 million gigabytes. The big free gift, whose goal is to maintain customer loyalty, will be available to new users for a maximum of six months.
Google's standard price tag is 1 cent per GB per month. So the promotion is basically worth $1 million each month it is valid.
That cloud storage space would be peanuts for a huge corporation. However, for a small business or start-up company, it would likely result in half a year of free data backups.
The search engine king has even developed a Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) calculator. It shows the money saved by choosing Google's cloud storage over competitors' such as Amazon Web Services.
Google, Amazon, and other companies seem to be engaging in a "race to zero" in which cloud storage eventually becomes dirt cheap and common as rain, according to Slate. Profit margins will then vanish.