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.

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— Mitch Wagner Editor, Enterprise Cloud News