Limited number of cloud providers doesn’t offer free accounts at all. Some others give a possibility to become familiar with their service within a limited period, at times they may ask you details of your credit card. Usualle they are a big enough, have large number of customers what allows them to remain stable and profitable.

But the majority of cloud services have for you at least a few gigabytes (some swiss extra secure strongboxes – a few hundreds of megabates). It’s a good PR for them and it’s an opportunity to involve new customers. And of course it’s a nice bonus for (normal) people who always like at least a small piece of cake for free.

And when some company announces that they stop offering free accounts – it’s a bad and a sad sign. The most probably the service won’t live for a long time.

On the beginning of May Spanish Oficloud.com advised that they delete all free accounts as of June 30. Oficloud is an intersting project with a not completely clear idea and constant feeling that they are still under development. They tried to establish a kind of a groupware: a multiuser cloud with the unix like file hierarchy, support of social networks and messaging. They even have a PC client, what can offer not all popular and widely advertized at PCWorld and StackSocial services. I’ll keep following this cloud, but so far that news sounds quite sad.