Degoo: leveraging Google Cloud for world-class online storage

About Degoo

Degoo offers 100 GB online storage free and 2000 GB for premium customers, all protected with military-grade encryption and multiple copies of every file. Currently installed on over 9 million devices, Degoo’s reach is spreading at a rate of 1.7 million new installs a month. The tight-knit Degoo team is based in Stockholm. Find out more about Degoo at: https://degoo.com

Android app
iOS app

Industries: Technology

Location: Sweden

Products: Cloud Storage, BigQuery, Firebase, AI Platform

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Storage app Degoo optimizes efficiency by simplifying day-to-day operations with Google Cloud.

Google Cloud results

Cuts storage costs by two thirds with Google Cloud Storage
Kick starts growth with minimised maintenance thanks to managed services
Improves customer retention with behaviour analysis on Google BigQuery and Firebase

By offering excellent value in cloud storage, including 100 GB free for all users, Degoo has become a breakout player in the online file-sharing industry, with over 9 million users. At more than 1.7 million new installs a month - that’s one new install every two seconds - the popularity of Degoo’s storage app on Android rivals that of more established brands. The team delivers value by optimizing efficiency and passing on gains to consumers, but rapid growth can mean an increased maintenance burden and demand for resources. To help keep costs down and simplify day-to-day operations, Degoo chose Google Cloud Storage for the core of its operation.

Immediate bandwidth savings of 65% and storage savings of 30%

“The online storage industry is very competitive in two ways. First, there is a lot of price pressure, as the price of consumer cloud storage falls,” says Carl Hasselskog, CEO and Co-founder at Degoo. “Second, there's pressure to innovate, to come up with new features fast. In short, you're expected to do more with less at an exponential rate. Google Cloud was both more affordable, making us more competitive on cost, and less complex, so we can let Google handle scalability issues and infrastructure, while we focus on innovation and user experience.”

“Previously, we had to monitor peer-to-peer storage much more closely, whereas now we can just assume that it works. If demand doubles or triples overnight, Google Cloud will handle it without us doing anything. That leaves us free to focus on retention, engagement and development. We’re now nine people. Switching to Google Cloud was key to our growth.”

—Carl Hasselskog, CEO and Co-founder, Degoo

Taking off with managed services

Online storage companies must navigate between decreasing cost expectations and escalating consumer demand for space. To stay ahead of the competition, Degoo runs a streamlined operation with minimal overheads on maintenance, personnel and infrastructure. In 2014, Degoo’s two co-founders worked alone, using an alternative cloud provider and peer-to-peer networking as the basis for their online storage offering. Maintaining the system occupied one-third of their time, and whenever one founder took care of an infrastructure problem, Degoo’s manpower would be halved, severely restricting the company’s development opportunities. Degoo looked to unleash growth with a swift transition to a cost-effective, low-maintenance cloud solution.

In just two weeks, one of the founders migrated the entire storage architecture and 1PB of data to Google Cloud, using Google Cloud’s S3 compatible layer and shutting down peer-to-peer elements. According to Degoo, setting up the core infrastructure around Google Cloud Storage delivered immediate bandwidth savings of 65% and storage savings of 30%. With Google’s Object Lifecycle Management feature, Degoo easily migrates between Multi-Regional, Regional, Nearline and Coldline storage classes for maximum value. Crucially, Google Cloud's managed services radically reduced the need for system maintenance, meaning the team could spend more time refining its product for customers. Degoo sends split test data to Google BigQuery and Google Analytics for Firebase, so that every new feature is analysed in fine detail for its impact on user behaviour and customer retention.

“We want to use data to build a more engaging product, to help users get more value out of their own data. We don’t want to use Machine Learning to extract value for our benefit, with ads and so on. We want you to gain value from it, for example by helping you find photos you've forgotten about. We plan to build on Degoo’s reputation as the most affordable and easiest to use storage app in its class.”

—Carl Hasselskog, CEO and Co-founder, Degoo

“Previously, we had to monitor peer-to-peer storage much more closely, whereas now we can just assume that it works,” says Carl. “If demand doubles or triples overnight, Google Cloud will handle it without us doing anything. That leaves us free to focus on retention, engagement and development. We’re now nine people. Switching to Google Cloud was key to our growth.”

Better storage with Machine Learning

According to Degoo, switching to Google Cloud Storage delivered immediate bandwidth savings of 65% and storage savings of 30%, and Cloud Storage remains considerably better value than Degoo’s previous cloud-based solution. In the future, Degoo plans further consolidation by migrating its website and metadata systems to Google Cloud, and expanding its use of Google Cloud Machine Learning tools.

“We want to use data to build a more engaging product, to help users get more value out of their own data,” says Carl. “We don’t want to use Machine Learning to extract value for our benefit, with ads and so on. We want you to gain value from it, for example by helping you find photos you've forgotten about. We plan to build on Degoo’s reputation as the most affordable and easiest to use storage app in its class.”

Tell us your challenge. We're here to help.

About Degoo

Industries: Technology

Location: Sweden

Cloud Storage BigQuery Firebase AI Platform