Google gives businesses unlimited cloud storage

Google today launched what it says is unlimited storage for business customers, as part of its Apps online productivity suite.

Drive for Business costs US$10 (A$10.65) per user and month. From today, Google will offer full encryption of files both in transit to customers as well as in storage on servers, the company's director of product management, Scott Johnston said.

It will also offer unlimited storage to organisations with more than five Google Apps users. Storage is limited to one terabyte per user for customers with less than five users.

For the unlimited storage plan, business customers will get round the clock phone support seven days a week, as well as a 99.9 per cent uptime guarantee with Drive for Work. The service offers enterprise grade security and compliance including ISO 27001 certification and HIPAA, Google said.

Those customers will also get the ability to store very large files on Google Drive, up to 5 terabyte in size. The file size limit does not apply to documents, spreadsheets and presentations however, which must be considerably smaller at 50 to 100 megabytes maximum.

An application programming interface (API) to audit activity such as moving, sharing and deleting files inside and outside companies is also available with Drive, Johnston said, as is Google's Vault service for e-discovery of emails, chats, documents and files.

A Google Enterprise spokesperson said the Drive service has lured 190 million users since its launch two years ago. Australian business customers include Dick Smith, Fairfax Media, Woolworths and the Speciality Fashion Group, the spokesperson said.