The new battle front between Microsoft and internet nemesis Google looks set to take place in the online storage space. Both Microsoft and Google plan to enter the hosted data market with services offering users hosted virtual hard drives. Google’s Gdrive plans were accidentally exposed in March, while Microsoft’s new project is code named Live Drive.

While Google has been vague about its service plans in terms of product specifics and the timetable, the word is that both consumer and business offerings for online storage solutions will be available.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has promised customers storage on its own massive server farms at Redmond.

While Microsoft is likely to charge users a subscription fee for the service, it is unclear what sort of revenue model Google intends to use. It is also unclear whether Google would differentiate itself by using distributed storage sites around the world rather than a centralised model like Microsoft.

Online storage, like ASP, has been the logical conclusion of the shift to web services. However, it raises questions with regards security, data integrity performance and availability that have yet to be answered satisfactorily.