On March 26, Amazon announced two new storage plans for Amazon Cloud Drive that deliver enhanced options regarding the storage of files in the cloud. Both storage plans give customers the option of unlimited storage and take direct aim at cloud storage competitors such as Box, Dropbox and Google Drive. The Unlimited Photos Plan from Amazon Web Services allows customers to store an unlimited number of photos for $11.99 per year while the Unlimited Everything Plan allows users to store an unlimited number of files, whether they be photos, videos or other files, for $59.99/year. Both plans feature a free three month trial and disrupt the cloud storage landscape by giving away photo storage for less than $1/month and file storage for less than $5/month. Amazon’s prices beat Dropbox and Google Apps per Google Drive, both of which charge $10/month for 1 TB of storage for a single user.
Meanwhile, Amazon recently broadened its deployment of Amazon Prime Now by rendering its one hour delivery service available in 35 zip codes in the Dallas area. Amazon Prime Now provides one hour delivery for $7.99 or free two hour delivery for subscribers to Amazon Prime, which costs $99/year. With the addition of Dallas to its list of available cities, Amazon Prime Now’s deployment currently spans New York, Baltimore, Miami and Dallas. Taken together, Amazon’s new product offerings for cloud storage and its expansion of Amazon Prime represent aggressive steps to redefine not only the cost, but also the logistics of day to day operations such as file storage and e-commerce. Amazon’s new product offerings aim to lure cloud-averse customers to become more comfortable with its platform as Amazon attempts to choke not only Dropbox and Google Drive, but also the likes of eBay, Walmart.com and Target.com. By rendering its existing products and services more attractive, Amazon is also likely to benefit from spillover revenue as customers surf through and sign up for a broader range of its products and services. But the real benefit, for Amazon, from expanding the overall usage of its platform is the enhancement to the reputation of the Infrastructure as a Service that undergirds its dizzying range of products and services, and the corresponding affirmation the company receives to expand and upgrade its infrastructure fleet toward the end of expanding its business-facing cloud-based products and services.
Filed under: Amazon Web Services Tagged: cloud storage
