With people here in 2017 spending more and more of our time online, storing our digital possessions online is becoming a greater part of our everyday lives.
But is the cloud really the ultimate storage solution? Here, we take a look at some of the advantages and disadvantages to give you a better view of the situation. With a mobile-first approach being pushed more and more in business, as well as in the services we use (think Spotify, Netflix), mobile networks are ready to embrace the cloud. But is it worth it?
Advantages:
1. No mechanical failures
Cloud storage, by its very nature, can’t break if you drop it. There’s nothing to drop! Unlike traditional mechanical hard drives, online storage can’t be submitted to physical damage of any kind, making it less prone to data recovery issues. Of course, this doesn’t mean that you’ll never run into a data storage problem with cloud storage, but we’ll cover that in the disadvantages section.
2. Helping businesses keep agile
Online storage is helping businesses to keep on moving. Whether you work in a small or large-sized business, it’s more than likely that you’ll be completing and collaborating on work online. This makes cloud storage a vital piece of the puzzle for commercial success. Once you’ve finished your presentation, you simply store it in the cloud and it can be accessed anywhere, anytime, and by anyone.
3. No upper cap
If you buy a mechanical hard drive, at some point, you’re going to fill it up and need to buy another one. This could lead to you having stacks of hard drives scattered around your computer. With cloud storage, that’s not a problem – just buy more and you’ll get access to more online storage.
Disadvantages
1. Open to cyber threats
If it’s online, it’s vulnerable. With over 4,000 ransom attacks happening per day since 1st January this year (according to the FBI), the threat to your online data security is becoming one that is more and more mainstream. Make sure that if you’re storing your important data online, you use credible, difficult to guess passwords, that you change them regularly, and that you’re using good anti-cyber threat security software for protection.
2. Your data can still become corrupted
Servers are hackable, so even if you think you’re making your important data safer by putting it online, while you can’t damage it by spilling water on it, you still might lose access to it if somebody hacks the server your data is stored on. If your data becomes corrupted and you don’t have access to the physical drive, you have less change of regaining access to it through data retrieval.
So there you have it: some of the main advantages and disadvantages to cloud storage. What do you think?
