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Within the cloud service industry, most providers are judged exclusively on how cheap they can provide standard cloud storage. With these providers endlessly competing over their raw storage plans, we are quickly seeing the cost of cloud storage sprint toward zero. The excess attention drawn to storage pricing by tech editors has sparked a major misconception for those tasked with comparing cloud services. Knowing cloud storage will soon not rely on storage space, most providers are redesigning pricing models using storage as bait, then gouging on user licenses and individual feature costs. With more services following this direction, and with more organizations spreading their concern – it is shocking to see that tech editors continue to publish the same meaningless storage reviews.
Though tech reviews seldom mention anything beyond storage cost when considering a new cloud service provider, there are indeed a number of factors that come into play. - Before even looking at the additional costs, organizations should clearly define the services they absolutely require. Many admins mistake basic cloud storage/sync services such as Dropbox and GoogleDrive for enterprise cloud solutions. It must be understood that such services do not offer backup, ftp/email/web hosting, WebDAV, and other features that many businesses require when creating a file collaboration/storage solution. - After features, you should check that you are choosing a reputable service provider. You do not want to store your data with a services that might be closed in two years, or those that have only recently been offering services to enterprises. - Unless you are a team of one, user licenses are a huge piece that most providers leave out of the puzzle until you order their storage plan. Prices across the industry range from $15/user/mo – $35/user/mo. What’s more, most providers limit you to 5 users, which means based on the lower pricing, you will be charged at least $795/yr just for a team of five. - Not many providers follow DriveHQ in bundling all enterprise features together. For most services, the real cost comes into play when you need more advanced management, collaboration and security capabilities.
One of the most popular cloud providers, Dropbox, has recently advertised a whopping 1TB of storage space for a mere $10/mo. Clearly coming from an IT administrator or CIO, this seems very attractive at first sight. Imagine a team of 50 employees that needs about 600GB of storage space in total; understanding that they fall within the accepted parameters, they order the irresistible package offered by Dropbox. “1TB for 10 bucks, what a steal!” Not long after migrating their data, the IT admin needs the ability to restrict permissions to certain users, and contacts Dropbox support to add subuser logons. Only now does it become clear that while you have an enterprise-level storage package, you still need to pay $15/user/mo to create accounts for your employees. So, what was once a $10/mo service fee has turned into a $9000 annual bill to support just your team of 50. The same service costs less than $2,000 per year with DriveHQ, and you also receive our broad-range of features. Do not make the same mistake so many businesses have made. Be sure you thoroughly compare your cloud providers, and have a clear understanding of what they offer, and where their solutions fall short.
DriveHQ saw the price of cloud storage going toward zero many years ago, and has constructed its pricing model with this in mind. Having a head start on other cloud providers certainly gave us the advantage for those larger organizations that have likely experienced other services and have a clearer idea of what they are looking for. That being said, we have found that many businesses simply do not know their requirements when it comes to cloud solutions beyond wanting a “secure backup solution”. Without a more clear understanding of what cloud services offer, organizations often end up choosing a seemingly inexpensive solution that they severely pay for down the road.
This widespread misunderstanding is exactly what inspired DriveHQ to construct a list of subscription models that aid users in knowing exactly what they are purchasing, and what the true limitations are. These bundled packages range from small business plans with 21GB and less than six users, to enterprise plans with 100TB+ of storage and more than 100,000 users. One advantage of ordering from the list of bundled plans is guarding yourself from unanticipated or unauthorized service charges as has been known to occur with countless other providers.
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