There's 1500 Free Petabytes of Cloud Storage out there

IHS iSuppli Mobile & Wireless Communications Service recent findings say that cloud storage subscriptions among consumers is ramping, and ramping quickly. According to the iSuppli press release Consumers Aggressively Migrate Data to Cloud Storage in First Half of 2012, “The consumer cloud performed strongly in the first half of 2012, with the number of personal subscriptions to online storage services at the end of June already at 75 percent of the market’s projected sum for the year.”

And, subscriptions show no signs of slowing.

By next year (2013), they project 625 million subscribers to cloud storage, and by 2017, 1.3 Billion. Granted, a majority of subscribers are opting for the free 2GB to 5GB of cloud storage that pure play cloud companies are offering. If we take a median capacity offered of 3GB, the storage adds up rather quick.

2011: 150 Million subscribers = 450 Petabytes
2012: 500 Million subscribers = 1500 Petabytes
2013: 625 Million subscribers = 1875 Petabytes
2014: ~775 Million subscribers = 2325 Petabytes
2015: ~875 Million subscribers = 2625 Petabytes
2016: ~1.0 Billion subscribers = 3000 Petabytes
2017: 1.3 Billion subscribers = 3900 Petabytes

The question iSuppli raises is a good one. Since most pure play cloud storage companies do not make much money — provided a majority of their subscribers are not paying for their services — how viable is the cloud storage market long term? What we may end up seeing is the AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint’s of the world striking close relationships with the likes of Dropbox, Sugarsync, and other cloud storage providers. Mobile carriers have the network and the installed base of users they so desperately want to hang on to. What better loyalty program than including cloud storage with your contract?

Furthermore, don’t count out the cloud behemoths like Google, Apple, and Amazon. The two things all 3 of these companies have in common is hardware and content. They all have a stake in devices, and they all offer access to boat loads of digital content.

Lastly, what about those consumers that want 100% control of their digital assets? One could argue that since a majority of cloud storage subscribers are opting for the free 2GB to 5GB, they still choose to store their content locally — in their own cloud, if you will.

The battle for cloud storage depends entirely on what consumers are willing to pay for. And, based on the data, they aren’t willing to pay much. Perhaps when the price for 1 TB of cloud storage is on par with 1 TB of cloud connected storage in your home, consumers will open up their wallets. Of course, it needs to be as reliable, secure, and simple to use as well. Personally, I just don’t see this happening anytime soon. Our data shows, that consumers will drive a majority of the available cloud storage capacity for the foreseeable future, and it won’t be in someone else’s cloud. It will be in their own.

Have you opened up your wallet yet?

Average storage per household to grow 7x by 2016 – How much will be in the cloud by 2016?

[Infographic:] Data — You Cannot Stop It

Who is the largest cloud customer? You.