“Cloud storage is a temporary market,” said Scott Johnston, director for product management for Drive, Google’s online storage, document creation and collaboration business. “In the future it will be about elevating productivity: How do we look for patterns? What does it mean if a document is read by 10 percent of the company? What does it mean if you haven’t read it yet?”

It’s a strategy that Microsoft is also pursuing with its OneDrive product. Dropbox, a storage site popular with consumers, and Box, a storage and collaboration site specifically for business, are both also working on ways to turn data storage into something that provides greater insight into how people are working. Dropbox started a business offering last year.

Google is using its global network of computers as a competitive weapon. The company said it would offer all of these services, including unlimited amounts of online storage, for $10 a month. Previously, storage was limited to 30 gigabytes a month, about the data size of 300 yards of books on a shelf, or somewhat less than the information on a standard Blu-ray videodisc.

An offering with fewer features and limited storage, for $5 a month or $50 a year, will remain.

It’s difficult to make a direct comparison among online storage providers, since features vary. Dropbox charges $15 a month for its business product, with unlimited storage, and requires a minimum of five people per company. It also has personal versions that are free or $10 a month, depending on the amount of storage and other features.

Prices at Box range from free to $35 a month. The highest-priced version offers a number of security features, among other things. Microsoft charges $100 a year for 200 gigabytes of storage for personal use. Its business version is $2.50 per person a month, but it is frequently tied to online versions of Office, its programs that include documents and spreadsheets, that cost from $5 to $22 a month.

This kind of corporate computing “is now one of our biggest bets,” Mr. Singh said. “We’ve funded this as a key part of Google’s diversification” from ad-based businesses like search.

“You’ll be videoconferencing with someone, while editing a supply chain document with someone else in Hong Kong, while he watches his son graduate on his phone,” Mr. Singh said, noting, “you’ll need a lot of infrastructure to do that.”