Future of Online Storage, 40 points to think about
Many of these thoughts and observations I’ve had in my head, I’ve shared them in a few passing conversations but this is the first time I’ve ever written them down. The timing is fitting as today I’ve been invited as a VIP to the Future of Web Applications conference in San Francisco.
Although I’m a Web guy working at a Data Storage company, please note these thoughts are my own personal thoughts and observations, and do not reflect those of anyone else.
1) Consumers are now Producers. A few years ago, only the technicaly inclined and web savvy could easily publish a website, video, or an audio show. Now technology has enabled anyone to be able to publish on a social site, a blog, pictures, audio, and video is now becoming easier to do.
2) The Storage Cloud is/will be the amorphous entity of online data that will be uploaded from a variety of sources, retrieved from a variety of tools, and rehashed into new forms and outputs.
3) At some point it will be unclear who owns what in the Storage Cloud, and that will be ok, it will be a shared collective pool of media.
4) Think about Data Storage to the Side, or Peer to Peer Storage.
5) Some companies will want data stored at a third party vendor, one successful model is salesforce.com.
6) In the near future, many companies will offer personal online storage, even non-storage companies. (Forget “Free Checking” think of free storage).
7) Online Data Storage will evolve, personal online data storage will be offered to developers (Amazon’s S3 currently does this) and then to small businesses, it could/will evolve to medium sized?
YouTube could double their storage needs every four months.
9) The Long Tail theory is more important than ever.
10) See fictitious dramatic Google Grid movie.
“Google Grid”: “…a universal platform offering an unlimited amount of space and bandwidth that can be used to store anything. It allows users to manage their information two ways: store it privately or publish it to the entire grid.”
11) Some small companies can’t afford system infrastructure, they will want storage on demand. They will outsource storage.
12) The future of Online Storage encourages sharing, there will be APIs available so the content be shared with other online applications and rich clients. The data will be mashed into new forms.
13) Online Data (media) may or may not be unstructured, but organized. Think about Microformats.
14) “Amazon S3, the Simple Storage Service is used to store objects using the Amazon online storage infrastructure. The API is uses Buckets, Objects, Keys and Operations. An object has four parts: value, key, metadata, and an access control policy. Objects are stored in buckets.” From Programmable Web.
15) See Google Base. Learn about it.
16) Storage is a commodity and many players have entered. A few large names like Amazon, Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft. More will enter
Many Online Data Storage company startups have appeared (about 100). Always remember, you get what you pay for.
17) Online Data storage is at the gig level. Terabyte will be achieved in near future.
18) Consumers will want to access their data from anywhere and want it centralized for access.
19) Prediction: By 2010 all Media will be 50% consumer created. (Heard on Jaffe Juice podcast)
20) The Long Tail theory is relevant as not all media is consumed equally (but all is important), think about Tiered storage.
21) Online Video companies like YouTube, Google Video, Blip, and a ton of others have massive storage growth needs. Read more of my posts tagged ‘Video’.
22) The Internet and TV will marry into a new medium. Their child will be a hybrid called IPTV. Read more of my posts tagged IPTV.
23) Google wants to harness all the world’s information.
”…They say that they should be able to house all user files, including: emails, web history, pictures, bookmarks, etc and make it accessible from anywhere (any device, any platform, etc)” which leads to a world where “the online copy of your data will become your Golden Copy and your local-machine copy serves more like a cache”. And, they say that they want “transparent personalization” that uses user “data to transparently optimize the user’s experience … implicitly.”
24) I predict consumer level data storage will become SO cheap, that the model will flip and online storage companies will PAY consumer/producers to upload content in return for contextual marketing and advertising.
25) Producers (everyone) will get paid to upload content that is appealing. Individuals become media outlets, again, consumers are producers.
26) I’ve created an Industry wiki. Learn more about the Data Storage Industry here:
27) Local content can easily be retrieved and resynched from the Storage Cloud.
28) Google will offer unlimited online storage (I believe it’s already possible to upload as much video as you want, this is happening faster than we probally think).
29) Mobile devices will publish automatically to the storage cloud, without going to local drives, for many this is already a reality.
30) Many will try to make online content secure, some will fail horribly.
31) Learn more about Microsoft and Google from Techcrunch: Microsoft Livedrive and Gdrive.
32) Predictions of Gdrive from Techcrunch.
33) Techcrunch Review of a few Online Data Storage Companies in Jan 2006, it’s nearly impossible to do this now as there are about 100 vendors.
34) Techcrunch: Amazon: Grid Storage Web Service Launches.
35) Is Bandwidth an issue? Jeremy Zawodny Yahoo’s top blogger has some ideas. See Swimming Pools and HardDisks.
He thinks that bandwidth isn’t an issue, as it can happen slowly and behind the scenes.
36) Listen to IT Conversations Podcast: Universal Access to All Knowledge.
37) Earthlink to Launch Online Storage and Photo Storage.
38) Dion’s excellent post Online Information Storage: Completing the Web as Platform.
39) YouTube’s potential Revenue stream.
40) Traditional storage companies may struggle to understand and react to what I wrote above.
18 Comments so far
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Things are looking good for the storage industry, but what is your take on the “net neutrality” battle that is waging in congress? Impacts on the ability for consumers to access this growing storage volume from any vendor, particularly those with freemium business model, could dampen the midrange markets, no?
[…] If you’re interested, please read my post on the Future of Online Data Storage. […]
Brian, I’ve not done enough research into that topic to understand the ramifications. Let’s talk more.
[…] I’m hoping to get your feedback on the “Future of Online Storage” post I wrote a few days ago. […]
Photos of Google’s new storage facility up here in Oregon. Note the huge cooling system which covers the roof.
http://news.com.com/2300-1030_3-6089390-1.html?tag=ne.gall.pg
Google paid $1.87m for the 30 acres of land. A tad cheaper than building in the Bay Area.
A “tad” cheaper for sure. One could only suspect this location to be for at least the purposes of data storage.
I’m often asked what I think about the Google Data Storage model, as they throw cheap storage at it, knowing that replacing drives is part of it. Hardly anyone can afford to do it like that, as they have nearly all of the riches, and it’s their job to harness and control the world’s information.
I agree, it will be very interesting to see what comes out of this facility Kit.
Maybe it’s just a large indoor soccer field.
[…] Michael reports that Carbonite looks like it’s doing hidden replication for a mere 5 dollars a month. A few days ago I published my thoughts on the Future of Online Storage - 40 Points to think about. […]
YouTube has many things to consider, and at the top of the list are bandwidth and security. Their success is certainly spreading the love around the industry as we saw last week in the deal with Level Three Communications.
Back to storage, good resource management includes good housekeeping. Companies that keep their servers from turning into digital landfills will ultimately see savings in storage costs and requirements.
I propose that for One Day Web this Friday, everyone take some time to clean up your servers, big and small, and free up some space.
[…] I initially wrote these 40 points for the web and data storage community, but David has provided some additional insight from the marketing and online search perspective. My initial conversations with David we’re great, he caught on to the idea faster than nearly anyone. […]
[…] Revver Shares the revenue with the uploader. (I was talking about this already happening, the future will be point 24) read their FAQ to learn more. It’s really simple: you upload a video to Revver, and we attach a brief, unobtrusive ad and our unique tracking technology to “Revverize” the video. Every time that ad gets clicked, we share the revenue with you 50/50. You can then track your video’s performance through your Revver account - which tells you exactly how many times your video is watched, and how much money you’re earning. […]
[…] Read my thoughts on the Future of Online Storage, or cruise all posts labeled Data Storage. […]
[…] In my previous post about Our Lives Online, I raised the specter of our impending digitization. And, as it turns out. the Storage Cloud is out there, and its waiting. What is this ominous-sounding Storage Cloud? According to Jeremiah Owyang, it “is/will be the amorphous entity of online data that will be uploaded from a variety of sources, retrieved from a variety of tools, and rehashed into new forms and outputs.” While this may be an apt description for the conceptual interface for our future, it has greater implications than the above business requirements. The Storage Cloud is the Earth flattened. […]
[…] Want to learn more about Online Data Storage? I’ve predicted these things happening here (I know I push this post, but it’s not because I want traffic, but it’s because there are some important changes happening) […]
[…] If you’re not sure why Online Data Storage matters, read my 40 points on the future of Online Data Storage. […]
[…] I predict that in a few years, this service will be free, then companies like JungleDisk will pay users to upload data (to the storage cloud) in return for contextualized marketing. More of my predictions here. […]
[…] I’m watching the Online Data Storage market carefully, which is a significant portion of the infrastructure of Social Media, you can see all my posts titled Data Storage. If you haven’t read my 40 points on the future of online data storage, now would be a good time. […]
[…] The big picture for Online Data storage is the opportunity for effective marketing, (there are other opportunites and disruptions to think about as well). When user data is stored on the cloud, the opportunity to understand, organize, and connect information is at hand. This is why I have the theory that Amazon S3 will eventually pay users (or other online data storage users) to upload data. […]
One of the biggest impediments to successful online storage is the asymmetrical nature of almost everyone’s Internet connection.
When the DSL and Cable provides finally move to at least a 1.5MB or higher outbound speed for their customers, the online storage will explode. Right now, the masses are limited to shoving their data up to the storage cloud through a coffee straw.