AdeptPlus

Cloud storage has experienced tremendous growth over the last five years and several solid providers have build a business providing not only remote storage solutions but also sharing and collaboration tools.  Dropbox is a leader in this industry with a handful of other competitors that include SugarSync, the most feature rich solution.

For years, many have speculated about a mythical technology referred to as the “G-drive”.   Conjecture will soon be replaced by fact – Google is getting ready to roll out Google Drive featuring 5 gigabytes of free storage.  For the leading search engine provider, 5 gigabytes won’t pose a problem – the company already gives over this amount for email alone.  Add to this Google Docs and Picasso and you’re already receiving close to 10 gigabtyes.  Then consider Youtube, Google Play, Blogger, Talk, Code, etc. and the amount of cloud space a single user can occupy is orders of magnitude greater.

Google Drive will complete the picture by providing online storage for files that has the same features as any local drive but is accessible from anywhere.  Expect full integration with Mobile devices and collaboration tools similar to Box.net and Microsoft’s Skydrive.

The question is how to sign up?  Go to drive.google.com –  I’ve heard (speculation) that this is the soon to be home of the Google Drive.

Update:  Google drive has been rolled out and the link above is live.  For $2.50/month the free 5 GB space can be upgraded to 25 GB for both Drive and Picasso.  As a bonus, your Gmail will upgraded to 25 GB as well.

Here’s how to get started:

1. Go to Google Drive on the web at drive.google.com.  Note that Google’s Drive is not live for all Google accounts and if you go to drive.google.com, you might receive a message, saying your drive is not yet ready. You will then have the option to be notified via email when Google Drive becomes available for them.
2. Install Google Drive on your computer or mobile device.
3. Put files in Google Drive – just like any other folder or hard drive and they will be sync’d across all of your devices.

Quick tip:  Google Docs (Google documents, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings, etc.) don’t count toward storage .

Update 2 –  for many users the maximum file size limit may be the deal maker in favor of Google Drive:

• Dropbox: 300MB via the Web or unlimited via the desktop app
• Google Drive: 10GB
• SkyDrive: 2GB