Microsoft will let some users of Box, Dropbox or Google use OneDrive free until their contract with the competition runs out.

Mitch Wagner, Executive Editor, Light Reading

February 6, 2018

2 Min Read
Microsoft Offering OneDrive Free to Competitors' Customers

Microsoft really, really wants your business on OneDrive if you're an enterprise using Box, Dropbox or Google. Microsoft wants you so much that they'll let you use OneDrive for free until your contract with the competitor runs out.

The offer is valid through June, according to a post on the Microsoft Office blog signed by Ron Markezich, Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) corporate vice president.

But the offer is not for everyone. It's not for current OneDrive for Business or Office 365 customers, and organizations need to make a minimum 500-user commitment, Microsoft says.

Figure 1:

You're invited to attend Light Reading’s Big Communications Event -- the one event that delivers fresh perspective on the rapid transformation of the telecom industry and the road ahead. We'll see you May 14-16 in Austin -- communications service providers get in free!

Like Box, Dropbox and Google, OneDrive lets users store, access and share files and photos from multiple devices. But Microsoft touts advantages to OneDrive not available to competitors' services -- notably, integration with Office 365, for real-time collaboration, as well as personalized search and discovery.

Of course, real-time collaboration isn't unique to Microsoft. Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) made its chops on the realtime collaboration features available in Google Docs, and Salesforce.com Inc. is pushing its Quip cloud collaboration service. (See Google Launches Security Dashboard for G Suite and Quip Wants to Kill Email Attachments.)

Microsoft says OneDrive customers include Accenture, DBS Bank, Textron and Lowes.

Microsoft has more on its blog.

Related posts:

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About the Author(s)

Mitch Wagner

Executive Editor, Light Reading

San Diego-based Mitch Wagner is many things. As well as being "our guy" on the West Coast (of the US, not Scotland, or anywhere else with indifferent meteorological conditions), he's a husband (to his wife), dissatisfied Democrat, American (so he could be President some day), nonobservant Jew, and science fiction fan. Not necessarily in that order.

He's also one half of a special duo, along with Minnie, who is the co-habitor of the West Coast Bureau and Light Reading's primary chewer of sticks, though she is not the only one on the team who regularly munches on bark.

Wagner, whose previous positions include Editor-in-Chief at Internet Evolution and Executive Editor at InformationWeek, will be responsible for tracking and reporting on developments in Silicon Valley and other US West Coast hotspots of communications technology innovation.

Beats: Software-defined networking (SDN), network functions virtualization (NFV), IP networking, and colored foods (such as 'green rice').

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