Norton Zone to Discontinue Cloud Storage Service
Symantec operated Norton Zone and they have recently sent out a memo detailing the closure of the cloud storage service. It is unknown how many users this will affect however we speculate that there were not too many paying memberships on the Norton Zone cloud file storage website.
This just goes to show you that having a household name in the IT world does not mean that you can have instant success in such a competitive profit vertical. Norton Zone’s main selling point was that it scanned all incoming and outgoing files for viruses and malware and all of your data was stored in an encrypted environment. The service followed the freemium model which gave users 5GBs of storage for free with upgraded storage for a fee as needed.
The email sent out to Norton Zone customers said, “At Symantec, we continually scrutinize our portfolio to make sure we’re delivering innovative solutions that captivate our customers and give you the most value. In reviewing the Norton Zone service, we looked at competitive solutions available today, our differentiation, and how well we addressed your emerging needs. While Norton Zone is an innovative, new offering, it is not yet solving your needs fully.”
The cloud service is expected to vanish within the next 60 days. In 30 days, all mobile apps will be disabled. At the end of the 60 day period, customers would have needed to back up their data in order to save it from being erased. Within the 60 day period, the service will be available to all users from Mac and Windows PCs. On August 6th, the service is expected to go fully defunct. Norton Zone is sending out instructions on how to easily back up user data.
Industry experts expect many cloud ventures to either cease operations or become fully acquired by other cloud vendors. In this specific situation, it made more sense to discontinue the Norton Zone service versus selling it or spinning it off.
