Amazon launches cloud-based file sharing

Amazon is launching a venue for storing, sharing and amassing feedback on documents, spreadsheets, presentations, Web pages, and other digital tools. (AFP PHOTO / LIONEL BONAVENTURE)

(SAN FRANCISCO) - Amazon on Thursday launched an online service for collaborating on work projects in a challenge to tech titan Google.

Zocalo is being billed as a secure, managed venue for storing, sharing and amassing feedback on documents, spreadsheets, presentations, Web pages, and other digital tools typically used to get modern day jobs done.

The Internet retail giant added Zocalo to its menu of Amazon Web Services (AWS).

"Customers have told us that they're fed up with the cost, complexity, and performance of their existing old guard enterprise document and collaboration management tools," Zocalo general manager Noah Eisner said in a release.

Amazon's cloud-based Web Services "was increasingly being asked to provide an enterprise storage and sharing tool that was easy to use, allowed users to quickly collaborate with others, and met the strict security needs of their organizations," Eisner added.

Zocalo is tailored to work with a gamut of mobile devices including laptops and tablet computers powered by Apple or Android software, according to Amazon.

The service has a monthly fee of $5 per user and comes with 200 gigabytes of data storage.

Zocalo will compete with a suite of Google Docs software hosted as a service in the Internet "cloud."

It will also challenge companies such as Dropbox which provide online storage for documents, photos and other digital belongings in the Internet age.