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For Dropbox, it is their core business. For Google, it's a drop in their massive bucket of cash that comes from advertising. If business reliability matters to

For Dropbox, it is their core business. For Google, it's a drop in their massive bucket of cash that comes from advertising. If business reliability matters to you, Dropbox seems comparatively better.

RALaBarge 13y ago
I dont think it is fair to equate the fact that Google Drive is less reliable than Dropbox, just based on the fact that Google has more irons in the fire compared to Dropbox. They also have orders of magnitude more employees and resources than Dropbox.
- derefr 13y ago
  I think there are two kinds of "reliability" getting conflated here. There's reliability as in "this is built on the stable foundation of a big system and has a bunch of engineers ensuring it's Highly Available" -- both Google and Dropbox can give you that. Then there's reliability as in "this product won't blow away in the corporate-political wind" -- and Dropbox is the only one who can truly say that. (Though Google Drive is pretty core to a lot of stuff Google does, e.g. Android, so it's probably not going anywhere either.)
  - UVB-76 13y ago
    On the other hand, Dropbox is a one-trick pony, providing a service that is easily replicable and becoming increasingly commoditized. Dropbox don't even own the hardware they store your files on. Google own the data centre, the hardware, in many cases the device (Android devices, Chromebooks, Chromecast, Google TV etc.) you use to access their services, and increasingly (with Google Fiber) the connection between you and them.
yid 13y ago
> If business reliability matters to you, Dropbox seems comparatively better. If you're comparing Drive to the Reader fiasco, keep in mind that Drive for business is a paid offering.
- zhoujeffrey 13y ago
  But so is google apps no?
  - yid 13y ago
    Yes, and google apps for business continues to exist...
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
  - superuser2 13y ago
    No, the free version of Google Apps was not a paid offering. The paid version is, and is still going strong.
ditojim 13y ago
How sure are you that Dropbox is more reliable than Google Drive? As sure as you are that Google Drive is just a drop in the bucket for Google?
orky56 13y ago
It sounds more like cost-plus pricing rather than value-based pricing. At the same time, it makes sense for Dropbox to go on the higher end of the pricing spectrum and drop it if things don't go as well as hoped since it's much easier to drop price than ever to raise.
Touche 13y ago
If their business is dependent on charging significantly more than the competition then I disagree that it is reliable.
_zen 13y ago
You really think Google would drop Google Apps for Business and Google Drive? That is really illogical. It's the future, they're not going to drop it. Dropbox is more likely to go under before Google Drive does.

RALaBarge 13y ago

I dont think it is fair to equate the fact that Google Drive is less reliable than Dropbox, just based on the fact that Google has more irons in the fire compared to Dropbox. They also have orders of magnitude more employees and resources than Dropbox.

derefr 13y ago
I think there are two kinds of "reliability" getting conflated here. There's reliability as in "this is built on the stable foundation of a big system and has a bunch of engineers ensuring it's Highly Available" -- both Google and Dropbox can give you that. Then there's reliability as in "this product won't blow away in the corporate-political wind" -- and Dropbox is the only one who can truly say that. (Though Google Drive is pretty core to a lot of stuff Google does, e.g. Android, so it's probably not going anywhere either.)
- UVB-76 13y ago
  On the other hand, Dropbox is a one-trick pony, providing a service that is easily replicable and becoming increasingly commoditized. Dropbox don't even own the hardware they store your files on. Google own the data centre, the hardware, in many cases the device (Android devices, Chromebooks, Chromecast, Google TV etc.) you use to access their services, and increasingly (with Google Fiber) the connection between you and them.

yid 13y ago

> If business reliability matters to you, Dropbox seems comparatively better. If you're comparing Drive to the Reader fiasco, keep in mind that Drive for business is a paid offering.

zhoujeffrey 13y ago
But so is google apps no?
- yid 13y ago
  Yes, and google apps for business continues to exist...
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- superuser2 13y ago
  No, the free version of Google Apps was not a paid offering. The paid version is, and is still going strong.

ditojim 13y ago

How sure are you that Dropbox is more reliable than Google Drive? As sure as you are that Google Drive is just a drop in the bucket for Google?

orky56 13y ago

It sounds more like cost-plus pricing rather than value-based pricing. At the same time, it makes sense for Dropbox to go on the higher end of the pricing spectrum and drop it if things don't go as well as hoped since it's much easier to drop price than ever to raise.

Touche 13y ago

If their business is dependent on charging significantly more than the competition then I disagree that it is reliable.

_zen 13y ago

You really think Google would drop Google Apps for Business and Google Drive? That is really illogical. It's the future, they're not going to drop it. Dropbox is more likely to go under before Google Drive does.