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"2014 is officially the Cloud\u2019s breakthrough year. Consumers still don\u2019t understand that the cloud is just a single word for the term \"Internet server-based storage,\" but they are finally starting to reap the benefits. And that\u2019s because, as I predicted, Apple, Google, Amazon and Microsoft are now engaged in an all-out war for your cloud storage needs and dollars.\nMicrosoft kicked off the offensive in late 2013 by bundling 200 GB of free cloud storage with every Surface 2 tablet. Even losing a court battle and being forced to rename SkyDrive to OneDrive did not seem to slow down Microsoft\u2019s momentum. When it finally unveiled iPad for the Office, Office 365 membership was a prerequisite for full use. OneDrive cloud storage is a key component of the suite.\nSee also: 5 Ways To Boost Productivity With Your Tablet\nAt WWDC, Apple unveiled iCloud Drive, a cloud-based storage system that will more ably compete with OneDrive and Google Drive. It also rationalizes the pricing, offering consumers 20 GB for just $0.99 per month.\nAmazon followed by announcing unlimited, free storage for all photos taken with its new Amazon Fire Phone. It's not a lot of use for those who don\u2019t live in Amazon\u2019s ecosystem and snap up a new, untested phone that watches you so it can show you stuff in 3D, but the Fire phone is still a major event in cloud wars. Amazon is, to a certain extent, following Google\u2019s lead. If you install Google+ on your phone (iPhone or Android) it can capture all your photos and store them forever on Google+.\nAnd now, now, the topper. Microsoft rolled out the big guns and is offering a terabyte of storage to all Office 365 users. A terabyte! More incredibly, each of the five account members (one $9.99 a month account gets you five sign-ins) gets a terabyte. So it\u2019s actually up to five terabytes for $9.99 a month. The company has also upped OneDrive free storage to 15GB.\nFirst of all, this helps illustrate just how much storage prices have fallen. Consumers, for example, can buy a 1TB hard drive for roughly $60, but these drives ultimately fail (yes, all spinning hard drives eventually die). The benefit of storing your stuff in the cloud is that someone else worries about redundancy and backup. You\u2019re paying them to protect your data.\nSo the war right now is being fought on two fronts. One is sheer space: We\u2019ll offer you more than the other guys and at better price and the other is offering it for something you really care about, like your pictures. No one knows how many Fire Phones Amazon will sell, but the \u201Cfear of losing all your pictures\u201D is a powerful lever.\nGive us more\nI\u2019m thrilled that all these companies are finally going after your cloud business, but there\u2019s still work to be done on the messaging, education and marketing side. Consumers I speak to don\u2019t understand the cloud. If you don\u2019t believe, check out the latest in mainstream entertainment.\nThis summer Cameron Diaz and Jason Segal star in Sex Tape. It may be the first film in which the cloud plays a crucial role. The hapless stars film their own sex movie only to accidentally store it in the cloud, which somehow shares it with all of their contacts. I guess this could happen. I could accidentally share something I shot with Google Glass to the whole world via Google\u2019s cloud.\nThe existence of such a movie is either a depressing sign of how little people know about the cloud, or an anachronism in a world where consumers are increasingly looking for online places to store stuff, and companies like Dropbox, Bitcasa, Box, Google, Amazon, Microsoft and others are looking to win their business.\nAs a platform, the cloud is aptly named. There remains a frustrating lack of clarity. The tools for setting up and using cloud tools vary widely and the rules for what happens to your storage space if you stop paying are usually buried deep inside a FAQ on the companies' web sites. In case you didn't know, none of the cloud providers I checked will delete your data if you end your subscription. Most, including Dropbox and OneDrive, simply discontinue your upload capabilities, but still let you access your files.\nI\u2019m not certain of how these companies can educate consumers. In the case of Microsoft, though, its Windows 8.1 systems will save to the cloud by default. If you use Google Drive, it\u2019s all in the cloud. Apple may want to push iCloud Drive on its iMacs, MacBooks, iPads, and iPhones in a similar fashion.\nI suspect that the cloud as your default storage on all platforms will come in due time and what\u2019s happening now among these companies only serves to sweeten the pot for skeptical consumers and benefit everyone who already embraces the cloud. This war will lead to greater access, better interfaces, more storage and a few causalities (there will be some industry contraction).\nOn balance, I\u2019d say the Cloud War is one of those rare good wars.\nHave something to add to this story? Share it in the comments."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2014/06/23/cloud-wars/>