Today we are thrilled to announce the global availability of OneDrive. For our existing SkyDrive customers, you are all set; your files are ready in the new OneDrive experience. All you have to do is head over to www.OneDrive.com and log in. For those of you hearing about the service for the first time, OneDrive gives you one place for all of your files, including photos, videos, and documents, and it’s available across the devices you use every day.

When we announced the new name OneDrive, we noted how it is much more aligned with our vision for the future. Our goal is to make it as easy as possible for you to get all of your favorite stuff in one place—one place that is accessible via all of the devices you use every day, at home and at work. Because let’s face it, until now, cloud storage services have been pretty hard to use, and the vast majority of us still have our stuff spread out everywhere. In fact, according to a recent poll*, at least 77% of people who are familiar with the cloud still have content stored on a device that is not backed up elsewhere.

We want to change that.

As part of that goal, we’re doing more than just changing the name with today’s release: We’re rolling out several new capabilities, including automatic camera backup for Android and the ability to share and view videos just as easily as photos. We’ve also added new ways for you to earn more storage—on top of the 7 GB we already give you for free. Customers who refer friends can now receive up to 5 GB (in 500 MB increments) for each friend who accepts an invitation to OneDrive, and we’ll even give you 3 GB just for using the camera backup feature, since we want to help make sure you never lose another photo. There’s even a new monthly payment plan, if you’d like a little more flexibility in how you use your storage.

Of course, OneDrive also builds on everything you know and loved about SkyDrive.

Available across every major device and platform

We’ve built OneDrive into the latest versions of Windows, Windows Phone, Office, and Xbox. You can even make OneDrive your default storage option, so you never have to worry about whether you are saving files to the cloud: They are just there. If you happen to carry an iPhone or Android phone, or use an iPad, Android tablet, Windows device, or a Mac—OneDrive is available there, too.

The best way to store, view, and share photos and videos

The deep integration with so many of the products you already use means you never have to worry about manually saving your photos and videos. And no more trying to sort out what video format to use—it just works. Plus, Start screen integration with Windows 8.1, and even Xbox slide shows, means there are countless ways your favorite photos and those photos shared with you come to life. And with OneDrive, you can share photos or videos directly to Facebook or via email with one click. You can even record and share gameplay from your Xbox One.

Perfect for sharing documents

OneDrive is built in to Office as the default save location, so you can see the recent documents you were working on and pick up right where you left off, even if you switch devices. With real-time co-authoring using the free online version of Office in OneDrive, you can work on Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents simultaneously with colleagues or family, and see edits as they happen in the latest version of the document.

Built for businesses, too

With OneDrive for Business, companies can give their employees the ability to store, sync, and collaborate on files across multiple devices with ease, manageability, and security. Not only does OneDrive for Business deliver an intuitive experience for employees, allowing them to seamlessly collaborate on documents right from within Office, but it is also backed with enterprise-grade content management, compliance, and administrative controls. Stay tuned for more about OneDrive for Business at the upcoming SharePoint Conference.

To celebrate the official launch of OneDrive, today we will also give 100,000 people 100 GB of free storage for 1 year. That’s 10 PB of free storage—enough storage space for a photo of everyone on the planet. If you want to be one of those 100,000, keep an eye on @OneDrive for clues.

We are excited to share OneDrive with you today, and look forward to hearing what you think. For more details on how to get started, including step by step instructions, just visit www.OneDrive.com.

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Chris Jones

Corporate Vice President, Windows Services

*Source: Online survey conducted by Harris Poll on behalf of Microsoft Corp from December 19-31, 2013, among 801 adults ages 18 and older who have previously heard of cloud storage.