SkyDrive has grown tremendously since we launched in 2007, and recently, we've made a number of updates to SkyDrive:

But we know we have a ways to go. As we look to the future and designing a personal cloud storage service for billions of people, it's important to reflect both on what's going on in the industry and the problems people are having with today’s approaches to the cloud.

What’s happening in the industry?

There are a lot of companies innovating in personal cloud storage, and they are all doing so through a specific "lens" of what's important to them. We see three distinct categories:

File clouds

  • A file-centric view of cloud storage presents your information to you in a traditional file and folder based metaphor. The goal is to address a few key areas such as accessing your files from anywhere and sharing, particularly for large files which are traditionally hard to share via email. These services are familiar for anyone that grew up with the file system. They let you upload, download, copy, rename, move, share, and sync. Examples include Dropbox, Windows Live Mesh, and SkyDrive.

Device clouds

  • A device-centric view of cloud storage "hides" the folders from you. Instead of exposing the file structure, these clouds work behind the scenes so people can easily buy and use multiple devices (phones, PCs, TVs, and slates) - working or playing across them without thinking about where content is stored. Today, device clouds are often proprietary to a brand or OS. The best known example today is iCloud.

App clouds

  • Some apps have been built from the ground up for the cloud. These apps sometimes – but not always - hide files and folders from you. Since they fully embrace the cloud, they can enable new ways to collaborate, organize, and share. App clouds are more natural for specific types of personal content like documents, photos and notes. Examples include Google Docs and Evernote.
  • When it comes to purchased content like music or movies, App Clouds not only remove the need (and ability) to pay attention to individual files, but they can also redefine traditional notions of personal ownership. Many customers are choosing these clouds. In exchange for ownership, they receive shared access to a broad array of content on a rental or on demand basis. Examples include Netflix, Pandora, and Spotify.

Each category enables specific outcomes for its users. Each of these has its strengths, and we think that they’re all interesting.

What problems do customers have?

While mainstream users are only just starting to embrace personal cloud storage, we’re seeing more demand as people buy and use more types of devices and need to access content across them.

As these trends continue, it’s interesting to look at how current approaches to personal cloud storage break down. We’ll look in particular at three groups of power users: college students, gadget fans, and photo enthusiasts. While they are on the leading edge today, they represent tomorrow’s mainstream.

Types of cloud users

College students

College students work from multiple locations and collaborate frequently as part of class. Overwhelmingly, when students work on group projects, they start or finish in Microsoft Office on their PC or Mac. However, in between, almost 75% of students use more than one tool to share and collaborate including email, file clouds like Dropbox, and app clouds like Google Docs. (In fact, over 70% of Dropbox users also use Google Docs.) Using these different tools can lead to formatting loss, extra steps and versions, or just confusion, since each tool has its own limitations. For example, students can use limited online tools like Google Docs to work together, but when they share using Dropbox, they get file conflicts and need to have the right apps installed locally to view or edit docs.

Gadget fans

These users have at least three devices including smartphones, PCs, and tablets. They want to easily access their content across their devices.

Device clouds like iCloud are useful – but not a perfect fit – since less than 10% of these people have devices all running the same operating system family. (If you include devices like e-readers and smart TVs or consoles, this percentage approaches zero.) As a result, these people often need to stitch together different cloud services to meet their needs.

Photo enthusiasts

We know we have users with hundreds of gigabytes of photos stored on their PCs. File clouds let them easily access and show off their photos from anywhere, but they can quickly hit cloud storage limits. Then they need to buy a cloud storage subscription, even if they have terabytes of cheap storage attached to their desktop PC. Also, since File clouds are primarily designed to replicate the file system online, they often lack rich photo sharing features that these people want.

Photo enthusiasts can also use app clouds designed for photos, but these have their own challenges. Often it’s difficult to upload files en masse without file system integration. Also, app clouds can be tied to specific social graphs. What if I want to share my full spring break album only with close friends while sharing certain pictures with Facebook friends? Do I need to upload pictures to multiple places?

Which cloud will work across these needs? 

The current approaches in the marketplace – including ours – have limitations. For their personal content, we think customers will choose the cloud that most seamlessly connects today’s files with tomorrow’s modern device and app experiences. What would this look like?

Table stakes

  • Simple & secure
    It would sync the files you have to the cloud and other devices. It would be simple enough to use to share files with anyone so you could finally stop emailing attachments. It would also protect your content using industry leading security measures. In short, you could trust it to “just work”.
  • Straightforward and flexible storage limits
    It should provide a modest amount of free storage for key scenarios. It should actually make it easy for customers to use this storage – and provide options to purchase more if needed.
  • Work across any device
    It would be built with the understanding that we want to have our content available anywhere, even if we use devices made by different companies with different operating systems. This is how important services like Hotmail and Skype work, and personal cloud storage should be no different.

Winning factors

  • Cloud-enable the entire PC
    While it’s critical to support all types of devices, it’s particularly important to connect the billions of PCs in the world to the cloud. The PC is the most popular smart device and stores most of the world’s personal content. A cloud tailored for this device would provide access to all of your content from anywhere, with no complex setup or configuration.
  • Work with key apps and services to let you organize, collaborate, and share in new ways
    It would work seamlessly and automatically with leading email, productivity, or photo apps to let you organize, collaborate, and share content in entirely new ways. It would also connect with the services you already use for sharing so that you could upload once and share the way you want. It would do all of this while supporting the files you use today and keeping you in control of your content.
  • Connects people, content, and devices at scale
    In addition to having the right features, the scale of a cloud itself can provide value for customers. Sharing and collaborating is more convenient when more people can connect to a given cloud. Also, people benefit from a cloud that connects content to more apps, and app developers prefer to integrate with clouds that have the most content and connect the most devices.

Where are we today?

We sometimes hear from customers who want to use SkyDrive in key scenarios but encounter limitations. Over the years, we have built products that have been too complex. Often, we’ve asked customers to play "system integrator" across numerous of our services and numerous other cloud services. Here are a few things we’ve heard loud and clear:

Twitter feedback

  • RickyJack – “…Why limit video size to 100mb when you give us 25GB of storage? …”
  • Trulyindian – “...We need the ability to share individual files without sharing the entire folder…”
  • Littledictator – “… Please add check-boxes…so people can quickly [manage] content in batches, whether to delete, download or move the selection…”

We know we have a ways to go to deliver a cloud that seamlessly connects today’s files with tomorrow’s modern device and app experiences. We will measure our progress in meaningful releases that address feedback and bring us closer to our vision.

It will also take time to bring together people, content, and devices at scale. Below are key indicators we measure in this regard:

  • How many people are storing content on SkyDrive every month - 17M (October 2011)
  • How much content are they uploading and sharing every month - 360M files (October 2011)
  • How many devices connect to SkyDrive every month - 5M devices (October 2011)

While aggregate indicators are useful, we’ll also look at how we are doing with power users like college students. Today, less than 10% of college students consider using SkyDrive to access or share docs.

We know that you have questions about what’s planned for SkyDrive. We listen closely to your feedback and are hard at work on our upcoming releases. Please follow us on Twitter for the latest news.

Omar Shahine & Mike Torres
Group Program Managers for SkyDrive

Tags: , , , , , , ,