There's a new player in the already crowded cloud storage market. UK-telecoms provider Virgin Media has announced the launch of Virgin Media Cloud. The platform promises a, "safe and easy way to sync store and share your files."
Not only is the cloud storage market increasingly crowded, but it is increasingly competitive. Gizmag's recent cloud storage comparison guide looked at what each of the main competitors at the top end of the market are offering, with Microsoft's recently-launched OneDrive coming out on top. Furthermore, Google's announcement that it has cut the price of Google Drive's paid storage plans will likely cause its competitors to respond in kind.
So how does Virgin Media's offering stack up? Well, its availability is immediately limited to existing customers of its broadband, TV, phone and mobile customers. It enters the fray offering 5 GB of free storage, which would place it toward the bottom end of the cloud storage providers in our comparison. Likewise, its first paid increment of £3.99 (about US$7) per month for 50 GB of storage means it also compares unfavorably in that respect to Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive, Amazon Cloud Drive, and Dropbox.
Virgin Media is touting the security credentials of its platform, having worked with F-Secure to develop its automatic backup feature and says that users can easily share their files via Facebook, Twitter and email. Users can store content from PCs, Macs, smartphones and tablets, backup from an unlimited number of devices and arrange files into folders.
In short, unless you're Virgin Media Customer who also uses its online ecosystem (such as email) regularly and needs a convenient chunk of cloud storage, there is nothing here that is remotely compelling and you should probably look elsewhere for your cloud storage needs. Furthermore, if you are a Virgin Media customer who needs anything over 50 GB of cloud storage space, then, for a minor inconvenience, you can get a much better deal elsewhere.
Source: Virgin Media