There is a huge rush of such cloud-based storage systems. They are a very convenient way of saving your information and referring it any time any place without carrying a physical storage. However, there are some reasons for you to keep using the external hard drive as a general data storage practice. With the start of 2017, these cloud-based storage systems will grow to a higher extent. I will explain why you still need an external hard drive in 2017.
There are a number of cloud-based storage services like Dropbox, One drive, Google Drive etc. These drives offer virtual space for your data. They offer a very good solution for the storage and security of your data.
These services have acquired a huge market in the world. People are finding it a very good solution to store their data using cloud-based storage. Indeed, it is a convenient way to store your data. But there is a limit to this amazing technology and services. Let’s explore some of the faces of this cloud-based storage system and the fact that external hard drives have still a major importance in our lives.
Why Do You Still Need External Hard Drive?
To answer this question, we will go through a number of different aspects of cloud storage systems. This will give us a clear view of the importance of external hard drives.
The size of these external hard drives has improved a lot over the past few years. The modern SSD external drives can be as thin as a mobile phone. They have huge space for storage and they can be carried in pockets.
1. Getting a Backup
This is one of the most common and needed aspects of data storage. To get a backup you need a lot of space as your system might have a huge number of files. Bad things can take place with your computer and you may lose data. To avoid the loss of such a huge information, you always get backups.
Now you have two choices, get a backup in your cloud space or get it on an external hard drive. Which one would you prefer?
The most important aspect to keep in mind is the time taken for backing up your computer. There are a number of small and large files in the system. Thousands of photos and videos to tens of thousands of files. Even if you get a backup of just the important pictures and videos and office files, it makes a huge space.
Backing up on cloud storage will take a huge amount of time for your system. It also depends upon the connectivity as to how long it takes for your system to get a backup. Apart from all this, it’s going to exploit your precious bandwidth. This makes the backup process extremely dependent on service providers, bandwidth, and the cloud storage space. There is limited space on the drive.
2. Accessibility and Portability
There are two aspects of accessibility of your data with these storage systems. The cloud storage system offers you the huge advantage of just carrying your password with you. You can have access to your data anytime and anywhere without carrying anything physical.
However, there is a revolutionary change in the size of the external hard drives. The first hard drive I saw was heavier than my present notebook and had an external powering unit. This all just for a mere 500GB of space. Now you can have a hard drive of 1TB and a size smaller than your wallet. With such portability, you can conveniently carry the hard drives anywhere you want.
The most important point here is the accessibility of your data. The Cloud-based storage can be accessed only with some internet connectivity. The files that you need may take minutes to hours to download. In a case of no connectivity, you may be hanged for access to your own data. This issue is eliminated by just taking the pain of carrying a lightweight and compact external hard drive with you.
3. Security Concerns
There is a huge threat to your cloud drive and your information if you are using them in public computers or office computers. This also allows malware, spyware, and other threats to crawl through your data. This is one of the biggest threats to your information.
While using your cloud storage to access your data, you may also become a victim of hacking. The data in your cloud storage is always exposed to all kinds of hackers. Your data can also be the subject of phishing attacks.
With all these threats, you might want to keep your sensitive information up to yourself and in your compact hard drive. This will free your important files from any exposure to hacking, phishing, and malware.
Comparatively, external hard drives are not totally secure from corruption, physical damage, and other threats. But are they a bit safe as a physical asset? In the case of corruption of partition in your drive, recovering data from deleted partition is made possible with some third-party applications.
4. Economy
The economic aspect of these two storage techniques is one of the most peculiar facts. There are cloud storage services that charge a subscription for a year or two. There are many cloud storages like Dropbox and Google Drive that give free space up to a certain limit. These services can be used by anyone with an ID.
But to use it in a full-fledged manner, you will have to buy the subscriptions for this cloud storage. The charges for 1 year in a cloud storage service may cost you the price of 2 hard drives. Sounds strange, but true.
The price for hard drives is going down every successive day. There are a number of different and compact external hard drives available in the market. These hard drives cost as low as $30 for 1TB and $50 for up to 5TB of storage space.
Compared to this, the cloud-based storage space can cost you as high as $10 for a month just for 1TB of space. This is one of the major differences that separates the two storage techniques.
5. Rights and Ownership
This is one of the most neglected and misunderstood aspects of using cloud-based storage for your data. Most people do not care about the license agreements and terms and conditions before using the service. However, it can be troublesome for some of the users with the integrity of data.
The Google terms and conditions state clearly the usage rights of the information that you upload to your drive. It states “What is yours stays yours” At the same time it clearly mentions when you upload, store, or send anything over the Google network, you are giving them the ultimate right to host, store modify, communicate, republish, or distribute your content.
With all these terms and conditions, you can imagine the integrity of your data on cloud storage. Indeed, this is a great technology to store your information and get it whenever you like. But these limit the enthusiasm for using these systems.
In conclusion, we can state that in spite of the growing popularity of cloud-based storage, and the decrease in the popularity of external hard drives the use of these small portable drives is significant. Still, in 2017, the cloud-based storage systems were unable to completely replace the importance of external hard drives.
