Is Unlimited Storage Truly Unlimited?
OpenDrive provides personal unlimited plans for home users as well as business unlimited plans for business users. Often the question arises about how much space can be stored in an unlimited plan, since it is obviously not possible to store every single information bit that has been created since the dawn of computers plan that is a few dollars per month.
Storage Space
The unlimited plans are intended to function as a set-it-and-forget it plan for 99.9% of all users who are in need of a sync/backup/file-sharing solution. Nearly all home users fit well into the default configuration of the personal unlimited plan with one or two computers that they want to keep sync’d or backed up into the cloud. Nearly all business users fit well into the default configuration of the business unlimited plan with office workstations and servers that meet today’s needs for businesses.
Personal Unlimited – Outlying users in the 0.1% who require an extraordinarily high amount of storage due to their very large at-home libraries of high-definition movie files or millions of online songs are not the target audience for the unlimited plan, and so as such, the unlimited plans do have measures in place that will begin gradually throttling the upload speed for these high-end users as they begin to exceed that of the intended demographic for their plan. Download speeds are never throttled on any plan, but for these select users with extraordinarily large online storage requirements, we offer custom plans that accommodate any amount of storage without throttling.
Business Unlimited – Business users who need to backup more than workstations and office servers will likely need a plan beyond what the Business Unlimited plan provides, so as to ensure the space and speed requirements are maintained. Upload speeds begin to be gradually throttled as data stored online begins to exceed that of a typical office workstation or server. Business users who require many 10’s or 100’s of TB more of online storage generally fit best into the Business Custom plans, Reseller plans or Enterprise plans, and are encouraged to contact us with requirements for their project to ensure the best match for the best experience.
Bandwidth
Bandwidth as discussed here will consist of the total amount of bandwidth used in a given time, Speed will refer to how fast the data will travel over that allotted bandwidth.
OpenDrive does not limit download speeds on any premium account. Free accounts have speed limited to 200 Kbps for upload and download.
For all custom plans there is no limit on upload speeds, and all upload bandwidth is included in the plan for free. For unlimited plans, there is no limit on upload speeds until you approach storage amounts that exceed that of a typical home or business user, depending which plan you have. This limit is not a fixed number, but is an average that increases over time, based on the changing norms as media, storage and content all continue to increase in size and amount due to cultural adaptation. As of the time of writing of this blog, these numbers are approximately 10TB for personal and 20TB for business unlimited plans. As previously mentioned, this more than accommodates 99.9% of users.
For custom plans, a set amount of download bandwidth is included in each plan that is reset at the end of each day. The plans are sold based on the total amount of download bandwidth needed and the bandwidth is quite inexpensive. Download bandwidth for custom plans can be increased or decreased from the admin portal through the Settings gear icon.
For unlimited plans there is not any limit on the amount of bandwidth that can be uploaded or downloaded, the only limits are the speed at which uploads will happen, as the online storage exceeds that of a typical user.
Users and Devices
Unlike most providers, OpenDrive does not restrict how many computers you can backup or sync to a single account. For an account with only one user, many users backup multiple devices without paying extra. This is true for all plan, even Basic (free) accounts. Adding users is encouraged when each end user wants to have private control and access to the data from the device they are using. As well when sharing private folders within your team, where specific permissions are granted, additional users should be added. This allows you the peace of mind of knowing that you can log in from anywhere and from any device to back up and retrieve your files.
Also unlike most providers, OpenDrive does not require that the data being saved into the cloud storage remain saved on the local computer. This allows you to archive data from your local device into the cloud and remove it from local storage. It is always best practice however, with any provider that you have a second copy of all important data kept somewhere other than your primary storage.
Making the Best Choice for Unlimited Storage
OpenDrive is committed to ensuring you, no matter if you are a business or personal user, have the best user experience possible. If you have any questions about which plan best suits your requirements, please contact us.
