Amazon announced a sweet deal in regards to its cloud storage service. For just a mere $5 per month, the company is offering free and unlimited cloud storage, but is it truly unlimited?
To find this out, we had to dig deep into the fine prints. We know you have little time, and such, probably won't read the fine print to see what Amazon is cooking with this service. We've done it for you and from what we have found, the service is indeed unlimited but with several restrictions.
According to the fine Terms of Use, the service is designed for folks in the United States. However, if customers outside the U.S. are taking advantage of the service, Amazon has the right to restrict access, but it all depends on the location. Furthermore, the company may place limits on the type of files users can store.
We suspect Amazon will not support .exe files and probably full-length movies. Microsoft learned its lesson the hard way and was forced to do away with its unlimited service due to some users storing several full-length movies on the servers.
Amazon will also monitor how the unlimited storage is used. If a user burns through 1 TB in quick succession, then Amazon reserves the right to shut that user's account down or restrict access to the files. Furthermore, if a user fails to renew his or her subscription fee after a period of time, then Amazon will use its power to delete the files or the account altogether.
The retail giant also stated that customers should only use its cloud storage service for personal use and have nothing to with commercial data.
It is clear that Amazon is attempting to protect itself in the best way possible to ensure that it can terminate or shut down a user's account at any given time. This is not what many want to hear, but the good news is that there are several competing platforms out there for those who are not pleased with how Amazon is doing things.
For now, Amazon probably has the best offering of all cloud storage providers. Microsoft once held this position, but after doing away with its unlimited storage offer, the software giant has fallen behind and might need to revise its position.
Photo : C. Osett | Flickr
