Microsoft Eliminates OneDrive Unlimited Storage – Thoughts

There have already been plenty of posts on the specifics of Microsoft changing the policy on unlimited storage in OneDrive for some products.  I’m not here to go through the SKUs and limitations, but just wanted to tell you my thoughts and let you know that I’d like to hear any feedback from you as well.  

In my experience I was unable to effectively use the storage so I stopped trying to leverage OneDrive for more than standard business use (Document collaboration, storage, etc.)  I abandoned trying to store photos and videos due to the bandwidth constraints.  At the time I was annoyed.

From my understading, Microsoft made this change because some small number of people were dilligent enough to store 75+ TB of video, music, etc.  Part of me says that these “bad apples” as they are being referred to have ruined it for the rest of us.  The other part of me is pointing out that the service offered unlimited storage.  Does that mean that when people take advantage of your offering that you take it away from them?  Is it really abuse if you marketed it, offered it, and sold it?  

I get annoyed when organizations use a marketing tactic to sell a product and then won’t back it up when people use it as advertised.  The reality is that they made it hard to use a TB or more, and never expected anyone (or many) to really take advantage, but the marketing of unlimited helped get a lot of market share in the past year.  

What bothers me the most about this announcement is the timing.  Microsoft has been doing a lot of really good business lately.  After some years of taking a beating, their cloud and mobility platforms (Office 365, Windows 10, Surface Pro / Book, etc) have been getting REALLY good.  Between Gartner’s magic quadrant success, independent gushing, and sales growth, Google and Apple are not the bells of the ball anymore.  So why give yourself a black eye right when you have clawed your way back to the top.  Let this slide for a while until you have put the final nail in the coffin of your cloud competitors.  It’s only been a year, what’s one more?

I’d love to hear what you think.

Thanks,

-Ryan