Online Backups Could Use Google’s Expertise

By ASHLEE VANCE

July 10, 2009

It’s all well and good that Google has promised a speedy, secure operating system designed for a Webby world. But why can’t the company — which buys so many darned hard drives — tackle a smaller project first and give consumers something they really want and need: easy-to-use, cheap data backup?

A so-called GDrive has been rumored for years. According to the speculation, this would be a service that lets people manage all of their files online – not just e-mail, photos and documents – and gives people access to their data from any computer with a network pulse.

It’s not a terribly novel concept, and there are ways to perform these types of functions today. Average consumers, however, certainly haven’t tapped into this type of technology in any meaningful way.

Even simpler than the GDrive would be an online backup service. And a number of people think that is where Google heads next.

“I see them getting into storage services now,” said Jean-Louis Gassée, a well-known Silicon Valley venture capitalist and the former chief executive of Be.

There are a number of players in the online backup arena, including …

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