Who said tape was dead? An interesting blog from I, Cringely on Google’s new Nearline service, tape based storage that can be streamed back to the end user. Weighing in at an impressive twenty-six times cheaper than their nearest disc product. I, Cringely, also makes some interesting commentary about where this is all going with the race to zero and what might happen to the Cloud storage market.
Now consider how this model might apply to cloud storage. They have your stuff, making most customers long-term captives. The value here lies in the customer relationship. The cost can go to zero because the real money comes from ultimately selling the customer relationship to a larger company. This makes every cloud storage company either an acquisition candidate (most of them) or a company that intends to become enormous then realize that customer value through selling value-added services down the line. It’s grow or die.
