I think this is a great news, for both consumers and businesses. There are (2) questions that are left unanswered, which hopefully you can shed some light on.
1. Why the 250Mb file size limitation? 2. Why the difference in pricing for Google Apps Premier vs non-premier (.25 vs $3.50 per Gb/yr)?
This is a quote from the Google Docs blog: "and if you need more space, you can buy additional storage for $0.25 per GB per year" but in the article above it says "we will enable Google Apps Premier Edition customers to purchase additional storage for $3.50/GB/yr ... ?????
So... Google Apps storage is 14 times more expensive than consumer storage ($0.25/GB-year for xxx@gmail.com)? Is this a typo, or is the difference really that huge?
I applaud Google for further expanding their services, however considering 32 GB thumb drives cost as little as $50 US retail, 1 GB of storage per user is not a whole lot. Expanding upon the example given, 1 GB will get used up pretty quick with a complete set of engineering CAD drawings and their supporting documentation, which leaves little room for other everyday documents and forms that a business user may rely on.
Appears to apply to Apps for education; there's a new check box that asks if you want the file converted to Docs format, which doesn't "count towards your storage limit."
That's really good news. I run GApps for a 2000 employees company and for sure I think this will be welcome. However, I'd like to understand why the gmail yearly cost is $.25 and the Apps cost is $3, 12 times more ?
Why huge price difference between normal Google Users, and Google Apps Premium users? At http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2010/01/upload-and-store-your-files-in-cloud.html you claim $0.25/GB/Year but here $3.50/GB/Year! That is a significant difference. I understand that there is a markup for enterprise services, but the difference seems a bit extreme here! Can you confirm those prices?
You can send email attachments directly from Google Docs, simply check the file then go to the share menu and select email as attachment.
This is a great move on Google's part, giving the enterprise even more reasons to make the switch, they didn't mention OffiSync which allows you to work on your docs or spreasheets inside MS Office.
I'm confused about the pricing for additional storage. In the general Google Apps Blog it says that it will cost $0.25 per 1GB per Year but in this post it says $3.50 per 1GB per Year.
Is this a price difference between the free Google Apps and Premier Edition? $3.50 per GB seems expensive.
It is a very interesting that this has been held back but I think it will reduce the market for products such as DropBox.
It should be greater than 1 gig, i currently have that much with Norton 360. Why don't you allow users to utilise much of that spare capacity that we have in our Gmail accounts? This is of more interest for those with Google Apps Premier Edition who have 25+ gig per user that often doesn't get used.
Also where is the ability to sync to a drive or folder on our network or pc even if it requires use of the API?
How soon will the limit on file size be lifted? Will this be for all premier accounts or do we need to apply for it? This is currently a major problem trying to use this solution in a corporate environment.
@PM - Leonard from the Syncplicity team here. Google's working on increasing the limit. In the meantime, we're finding customers are using Syncplicity in conjunction with Google Apps as Syncplicity has no file size limits to ensure files are always available in the cloud for backup, anywhere access, sharing, and collaboration purposes.
Guys, you need to think about how to allow us lowly Google Apps standard edition users to buy this as well. A lot of people run Google Apps just as family, organization, or any small group site. It's hard for me to justify paying $50 per year per family member just to be _allowed_ to buy extra storage. I know this is all about profits, but at least let me give you money without breaking the bank and stopping me using your services all together, please.
A very useful move for Enterprise customers like us, but three points spring to mind:
1. Will we be able to upload and store Word / Excel etc in their original format (i.e. not converted to Google docs). Much as I like using Google docs / spreadsheets, sometimes you want to stick to the original (e.g. graphing features in Excel or a client requirement to use Word, not Google docs)
2. From an Enterprise perspective this isn't a good option if storage is limited - we can't rely on a platform that may suddenly run out of storage with no option to upgrade - so until extra storage can be purchased, this can only be a tactical tool for us.
3. There's an issue with both gmail and Google sites - it's all very well going to docs to email the document, but often (I would venture usually) people start by writing the email / replying to someone else's email, then want to attach the documents. The fact that I can attach MS Office documents to a Google site, but not Google docs is also a bit disjointed!
Why is storage for Premium accounts $3.50/GB/yr and on my free Gmail account is only $0.50/GB/yr (http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=165214). That seems like an unfair premium for "Premium" Apps users.
Been eagerly anticipating this but until there is a front-end gui that allows me to move files into and out of a folder or have this space appear like a local drive, I will continue to use dropbox. Come on google, your almost there!
@BobS, @The Lost Agency, @Mark Flanders, @Scott Balun: Leonard from the Syncplicity team here.
We've been working with Google to address exactly this problem. With Syncplicity, you can map local folders to directly sync all of their files and subfolders with Google Docs. For example, create a file on your desktop and it appears in Google Docs. Edit the file in Google Docs, and the file is seamlessly updated on your desktop.
Syncplicity also doesn't have any file size or total storage limitations, so you still get backup, versioning, anywhere access, etc. even if a file can't be stored within Google Docs currently. When those limitations do go away, the files that couldn't be synced into Google Docs will be automatically be synced as well.
You can give it a try here with either our free or business edition: www.syncplicity.com
Another thing, im working with a big business and we have large documents that im currently uploading to google docs. The files are less than 250 MB but when i try to open them it stops loading 3/4 of the way. Does anyone know why the bigger files aren't opening in google doca?
I can upload the big files as word documents but not as google documents. THe whole point is to get every document on google docs...anyone? Just so everyone knows im Mr. Kruger's assistant so Im still learning...ha
I would like to add my name to the list of Standard Edition users that would like the option to purchase additional storage. Ideally this would be per user (meaning I select the user(s) that need more space) but if the price was fair and based on number of users (all users get more space)that would be ok.
I also run Google Apps for my family.
We run a mix of Mac and PC here so a solution like Skydrive is not as useful (plus I'd prefer to have all my services integrated as they are now).
this is great, but when you want to work with complex business information, such as spreadsheet data, you need the power of local computation but still require sharing. What about working offline or limiting what a user can see if a given spreadsheet?-- in this situation, it makes a lot more sense to store your data in the cloud and use Excel on the desktop with an application which enables data sharing in the cloud versus having to move your spreadsheet model to a browser spreadsheet. Check out www.boardwalktech.com-- the best of both worlds
$3.50 per GB per year for an enterprise class fileserver in the cloud... even my kids gets more pocketmoney so I'll be using this for my personal stuff as well. Give us that purchase-button ;)
I would like to see a cross-platform client like Dropbox has produced by Google that allows me to work with the files locally. The APIs are nice, but they don't do my office much good as I don't have time or write an interface. Until that point those few of use that need WebDAV will continue to use the free version of Dropbox. As far as paying for other programs to do it, I am already paying for Google Apps Premier, I don't think I should have to pay for another program to do this.
Why is Google charging so much for storage for Google Apps Docs?
If we pay for premium each user gets 25GB of email storage (which we will never use at this rate) and .... wait for it .... 1GB(!) of Docs.
Seriously?! You want to charge a monster premium on one service at inflated rates right next to the service it's meant to dovetail with?
I really hope Amazon storage comes to the party with some really nice document storage solution at the rates that reflect how much of a commodity storage has become - I don't belive Google apps is so pervasive it can extort users in the same way that Microsoft did with Office products and get away with it.
Forget "Don't be Evil" - how about "Try to be a a bit rational"
its just too SMALL STORAGE! As 2 GB now can be easily bought in store probably under 10USD$, and what even worst is you can get 2 TB (note it is Terabyte) for just 100USD$. Whats the big deal of 1 GB free from Google?
If Google gives 1TB of storage, I would consider uploading all my files to the Google Apps.
When the wait for purchasing additional storage will end? Till we don't have the possibility of extra space (1 Gbyte today is meanless), it can't be taken seriously as "Cloud" storage and above all, Cloud business platform
Come on Google - when can we buy the extra storage we need to run a business properly? We are desperate to migrate from an old creaky local sharepoint server to the cloud ... looks we are going to have to buy a sharepoint saas solution rather than capitalise on our existing google apps premier config
Awesome! I've waited for this kind of feature!
ReplyDeleteWill you be able to "hotlink" the files? And if so are there any bandwidth restrictions?
ReplyDeleteGoogle Drive at last?
ReplyDeleteI think this is a great news, for both consumers and businesses. There are (2) questions that are left unanswered, which hopefully you can shed some light on.
ReplyDelete1. Why the 250Mb file size limitation?
2. Why the difference in pricing for Google Apps Premier vs non-premier (.25 vs $3.50 per Gb/yr)?
Thanks!
Amazing... I have been waiting for this for years. At last it finally has arrived.
ReplyDeleteThis is great news. Our customers have been waiting for this feature. Can't wait to try it out.
ReplyDeletewow. you google guys just rocks.
ReplyDeleteWhy the huge discrepancy between the $0.25/GB/yr for individuals and $3.50/GB/yr for enterprise? And what about for apps for edu customers?
ReplyDeleteHello,
ReplyDeletewe are using Google apps in my business. A big problem my former Outlook users have is creating _new_ emails with attachments from older mails.
So my question is:
Can I save big attachments directly in this storage without downloading and uploading them?
How come storage costs Google Apps Premier Edition customers 8 times more per GB per year than Google Apps Standard Edition users ?
ReplyDeleteThis is a quote from the Google Docs blog: "and if you need more space, you can buy additional storage for $0.25 per GB per year" but in the article above it says "we will enable Google Apps Premier Edition customers to purchase additional storage for $3.50/GB/yr ... ?????
ReplyDeleteDoes this apply to Google Apps for Education?
ReplyDeleteSo... Google Apps storage is 14 times more expensive than consumer storage ($0.25/GB-year for xxx@gmail.com)? Is this a typo, or is the difference really that huge?
ReplyDeleteI applaud Google for further expanding their services, however considering 32 GB thumb drives cost as little as $50 US retail, 1 GB of storage per user is not a whole lot. Expanding upon the example given, 1 GB will get used up pretty quick with a complete set of engineering CAD drawings and their supporting documentation, which leaves little room for other everyday documents and forms that a business user may rely on.
ReplyDeleteAppears to apply to Apps for education; there's a new check box that asks if you want the file converted to Docs format, which doesn't "count towards your storage limit."
ReplyDeleteThis is great, how about now make a add-on for WHS to sync files automatically?
ReplyDeleteGoodbye shared drives - what a boon to small and medium businesses!!
ReplyDeleteEven at $3.50 a GB/year, the built-in backup, redundancy, version control, and search (!) make this a must-have no-brainer.
It'll be interesting to see the take-up of this...!
J / Cloudbreak
Love it...Thank you Google
ReplyDeleteThe official Google Drive at last !!
ReplyDeleteThat's really good news. I run GApps for a 2000 employees company and for sure I think this will be welcome. However, I'd like to understand why the gmail yearly cost is $.25 and the Apps cost is $3, 12 times more ?
ReplyDeleteWhy huge price difference between normal Google Users, and Google Apps Premium users? At http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2010/01/upload-and-store-your-files-in-cloud.html you claim $0.25/GB/Year but here $3.50/GB/Year! That is a significant difference. I understand that there is a markup for enterprise services, but the difference seems a bit extreme here! Can you confirm those prices?
ReplyDeleteDid you planed a iPhone app to access our docs ?
ReplyDeleteWhen would this apply for standard Edition of Google ?
ReplyDeleteStill not clear - is it 3.5$/gb/mo or 0.25$/gb/mo as written in http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2010/01/upload-and-store-your-files-in-cloud.html
ReplyDeleteOr this is different prices for different types of customers? If you're using Apps same thing will be x14 times more expensive?
Is WebDAV supported? It will be very convenient to connect via a standard interface like WebDAV.
ReplyDeleteYou can send email attachments directly from Google Docs, simply check the file then go to the share menu and select email as attachment.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great move on Google's part, giving the enterprise even more reasons to make the switch, they didn't mention OffiSync which allows you to work on your docs or spreasheets inside MS Office.
I'm confused about the pricing for additional storage. In the general Google Apps Blog it says that it will cost $0.25 per 1GB per Year but in this post it says $3.50 per 1GB per Year.
ReplyDeleteIs this a price difference between the free Google Apps and Premier Edition? $3.50 per GB seems expensive.
No wonder that are located in Mountain View!
ReplyDeleteA first and true "cumulus nimbus" Google, great shot, I love this organization!
Can I map it as a network drive, or only upload and download?
ReplyDeleteIt is a very interesting that this has been held back but I think it will reduce the market for products such as DropBox.
ReplyDeleteIt should be greater than 1 gig, i currently have that much with Norton 360. Why don't you allow users to utilise much of that spare capacity that we have in our Gmail accounts? This is of more interest for those with Google Apps Premier Edition who have 25+ gig per user that often doesn't get used.
Also where is the ability to sync to a drive or folder on our network or pc even if it requires use of the API?
How and when do we apply ?
ReplyDeleteHow soon will the limit on file size be lifted? Will this be for all premier accounts or do we need to apply for it? This is currently a major problem trying to use this solution in a corporate environment.
ReplyDeleteGreat - how soon?
ReplyDelete@PM - Leonard from the Syncplicity team here. Google's working on increasing the limit. In the meantime, we're finding customers are using Syncplicity in conjunction with Google Apps as Syncplicity has no file size limits to ensure files are always available in the cloud for backup, anywhere access, sharing, and collaboration purposes.
ReplyDeleteGuys, you need to think about how to allow us lowly Google Apps standard edition users to buy this as well. A lot of people run Google Apps just as family, organization, or any small group site. It's hard for me to justify paying $50 per year per family member just to be _allowed_ to buy extra storage. I know this is all about profits, but at least let me give you money without breaking the bank and stopping me using your services all together, please.
ReplyDeleteA very useful move for Enterprise customers like us, but three points spring to mind:
ReplyDelete1. Will we be able to upload and store Word / Excel etc in their original format (i.e. not converted to Google docs). Much as I like using Google docs / spreadsheets, sometimes you want to stick to the original (e.g. graphing features in Excel or a client requirement to use Word, not Google docs)
2. From an Enterprise perspective this isn't a good option if storage is limited - we can't rely on a platform that may suddenly run out of storage with no option to upgrade - so until extra storage can be purchased, this can only be a tactical tool for us.
3. There's an issue with both gmail and Google sites - it's all very well going to docs to email the document, but often (I would venture usually) people start by writing the email / replying to someone else's email, then want to attach the documents. The fact that I can attach MS Office documents to a Google site, but not Google docs is also a bit disjointed!
Ian.
Why is storage for Premium accounts $3.50/GB/yr and on my free Gmail account is only $0.50/GB/yr (http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=165214). That seems like an unfair premium for "Premium" Apps users.
ReplyDeleteI second the question about Google Apps for Education. Will we be able to buy extra room?
ReplyDeleteWhat's missing is the local client that allow me to interact with Google docs as if it were a local drive on my pc.
ReplyDeleteThank you for all this information. it is very helpful
ReplyDeleteThe price of $3.50/GB/YR seems very high. Is this correct?
ReplyDeleteBeen eagerly anticipating this but until there is a front-end gui that allows me to move files into and out of a folder or have this space appear like a local drive, I will continue to use dropbox. Come on google, your almost there!
ReplyDelete@BobS, @The Lost Agency, @Mark Flanders, @Scott Balun: Leonard from the Syncplicity team here.
ReplyDeleteWe've been working with Google to address exactly this problem. With Syncplicity, you can map local folders to directly sync all of their files and subfolders with Google Docs. For example, create a file on your desktop and it appears in Google Docs. Edit the file in Google Docs, and the file is seamlessly updated on your desktop.
Syncplicity also doesn't have any file size or total storage limitations, so you still get backup, versioning, anywhere access, etc. even if a file can't be stored within Google Docs currently. When those limitations do go away, the files that couldn't be synced into Google Docs will be automatically be synced as well.
You can give it a try here with either our free or business edition: www.syncplicity.com
Google docs is a great place to store CAD drawings
ReplyDeleteTo leave standard edition users out of this is really disappointing. Do you really want to dive us to downgrade to plain gmail accounts?
ReplyDeleteI run Google apps standard edition for my family. I was really hoping to start storing files online, with shared storage. Guess we'll look elsewhere.
So the Syncplicity is the solution to the un realistic 1GB storage limit?
ReplyDeleteAnother thing, im working with a big business and we have large documents that im currently uploading to google docs. The files are less than 250 MB but when i try to open them it stops loading 3/4 of the way. Does anyone know why the bigger files aren't opening in google doca?
ReplyDeleteI can upload the big files as word documents but not as google documents. THe whole point is to get every document on google docs...anyone? Just so everyone knows im Mr. Kruger's assistant so Im still learning...ha
ReplyDeleteI would like to add my name to the list of Standard Edition users that would like the option to purchase additional storage. Ideally this would be per user (meaning I select the user(s) that need more space) but if the price was fair and based on number of users (all users get more space)that would be ok.
ReplyDeleteI also run Google Apps for my family.
We run a mix of Mac and PC here so a solution like Skydrive is not as useful (plus I'd prefer to have all my services integrated as they are now).
this is great, but when you want to work with complex business information, such as spreadsheet data, you need the power of local computation but still require sharing. What about working offline or limiting what a user can see if a given spreadsheet?-- in this situation, it makes a lot more sense to store your data in the cloud and use Excel on the desktop with an application which enables data sharing in the cloud versus having to move your spreadsheet model to a browser spreadsheet. Check out www.boardwalktech.com-- the best of both worlds
ReplyDelete$3.50 per GB per year for an enterprise class fileserver in the cloud... even my kids gets more pocketmoney so I'll be using this for my personal stuff as well. Give us that purchase-button ;)
ReplyDeleteI would like to see a cross-platform client like Dropbox has produced by Google that allows me to work with the files locally. The APIs are nice, but they don't do my office much good as I don't have time or write an interface. Until that point those few of use that need WebDAV will continue to use the free version of Dropbox. As far as paying for other programs to do it, I am already paying for Google Apps Premier, I don't think I should have to pay for another program to do this.
ReplyDeleteAny update on when it will be possible to purchase the extra storage as advertised?
ReplyDeleteWhy is Google charging so much for storage for Google Apps Docs?
ReplyDeleteIf we pay for premium each user gets 25GB of email storage (which we will never use at this rate) and .... wait for it .... 1GB(!) of Docs.
Seriously?! You want to charge a monster premium on one service at inflated rates right next to the service it's meant to dovetail with?
I really hope Amazon storage comes to the party with some really nice document storage solution at the rates that reflect how much of a commodity storage has become - I don't belive Google apps is so pervasive it can extort users in the same way that Microsoft did with Office products and get away with it.
Forget "Don't be Evil" - how about "Try to be a a bit rational"
its just too SMALL STORAGE!
ReplyDeleteAs 2 GB now can be easily bought in store probably under 10USD$, and what even worst is you can get 2 TB (note it is Terabyte) for just 100USD$. Whats the big deal of 1 GB free from Google?
If Google gives 1TB of storage, I would consider uploading all my files to the Google Apps.
When the wait for purchasing additional storage will end? Till we don't have the possibility of extra space (1 Gbyte today is meanless), it can't be taken seriously as "Cloud" storage and above all, Cloud business platform
ReplyDeleteAre we still waiting for this?
ReplyDeleteAre we still waiting on this? Come on!
ReplyDeleteCome on Google - when can we buy the extra storage we need to run a business properly? We are desperate to migrate from an old creaky local sharepoint server to the cloud ... looks we are going to have to buy a sharepoint saas solution rather than capitalise on our existing google apps premier config
ReplyDeleteThank you for making this option available. I use Google Docs to share files with my friends all of the time and am eager to try the cloud!
ReplyDeleteWhen will you offer a mountable disk to drag and drop entire disk from Windows Desktop?
ReplyDelete