Reasons to not rely on Physical Hard Drive Storage
For a long time backing up your data required physical hardware such as external drives, NAS, and so on. Countless dollars and multiple solutions later your data was still at risk, however today cloud storage has revolutionized how we backup our data. Here’s a look at why you shouldn’t rely on physical storage.
Hardware Failure/Vulnerability:
Physical hardware has a life expectancy like any other storage device out there, no matter the cost or solution all drives eventually die out and require you to upgrade or replace them. On top of that physical storage is vulnerable to other failures such as damage in natural disasters or even theft, since it’s a physical object they can easily get damaged in a variety of situations that compromise your backup.
Based only Locally:
Another disadvantage of storing your files on a backup drive is that its local only, you can’t share files amongst other computers unless you invest in a NAS or other 3rd party service. Let’s say you need to restore backup files whilst you’re traveling but left your external backup at home or at the office, you’re essentially out of luck. Whereas with cloud storage your data is available across multiple locations and devices, not to mention the fact you can also restore usually at any time from the web. You can also take your storage and make it available at any time via the cloud.
Mobile Compatibility:
In the mobile world we live in it only makes sense that we have the ability to access our backups via our smartphone, however with typical external storage you can’t view them on your iPhone or Android device. Almost all cloud storage services in this day and age have apps or web portals that allow you to access your documents via your mobile, this means you access your files on the go and makes your data available to you wherever you are.
Physical Limitation:
Again hard drives are a physical liability, this is inconvenient in that it takes up physical space in the office and other environments and limits mobility. Your storage in cloud based services makes your data available anywhere you go, employees can access files easily as well as securely which makes it incredibly useful in a working environment when you compare it to traditional drives.
Cost Effectiveness:
Physical drives typically cost more money wise, not to mention the fact that you’ll have to replace drives now and again and upgrade when you’ve hit storage limits on your drives. With cloud based services you typically have scaling plans for more storage which saves much more money on 1TB or even unlimited plans that allow you to backup as many files as you want. This saves you money in the long run and eliminates a lot of the hassle that comes with physical drives.
At the end of the day cloud storage is on the rise with the wider availability of the internet across the world and the fact it’s accessible on multiple platforms. Whether it’s for convenience, cost, efficiency to security cloud storage is becoming one of the superior methods for backing up your data.
