Cloud storage has evolved from complicated and confusing to a reliable necessity for most people. Microsoft began its cloud storage offerings with SkyDrive but after a trademark dispute from Sky Media Group Microsoft was forced to change the name to OneDrive. Shortly after the name change Microsoft began the focus on making OneDrive feature packed and very competitive. Now one year later Microsoft looks back upon OneDrive and its many accomplishments.
OneDrive acts as the backend for many of Microsoft’s other products like Office and OneNote. Users may be using OneDrive every day via Word or Excel and never know the enormous amount of work that Microsoft has done to make documents save and sync in the cloud. To compete with other cloud storage providers, Microsoft began by doubling the amount of storage users got for free by creating incentives such as bonus space for backing up your camera roll. After that Microsoft focused on their Office 365 subscribers and at first increased their storage from 20GB to 1TB; then went quickly from 1TB to unlimited cloud storage.
Windows 8 used OneDrive as the backend to sync settings and some app data, and now Windows 10 seeks to increase the synergy between Windows and OneDrive. A new universal photos app blends cloud and local storage to provide users with seamless access to their photos regardless of where they are stored. Several other apps, like Office Lens, use OneDrive to save files to be accessed anywhere or saved as documents or placed directly into OneNote. OneDrive’s mobile apps exist on every platform and the web making it super friendly for all consumers and businesses.
While OneDrive continues to get better and better, there are still significant issues with cloud storage that need to be addressed. OneDrive lacks any large scale data recovery tools making big data backup an unsure endeavor. In the event of a mistake or misuse by users, there is little recourse that can be taken to recover the data. Microsoft advertises the cloud as secure and safe backup. However, users who experience data loss have no support to contact. When people trust companies with their data in the cloud, they may be backing up files that cannot be replaced. Microsoft has added significant features to OneDrive, but they still have a lot of work ahead to make OneDrive a completely secure and robust file storage solution for anyone.
