The battle is on: Hard Drive vs Cloud Storage. Now that both hard-drives and cloud storage prices have fallen to affordable prices, more people are thinking about whether to use an external hard drive or a cloud storage service to back-up their most important files. It is important to understand that are number of pros and cons when dealing with cloud storage services versus storing external hard drives.
At first, it seems that external hard drives have a clear advantage because they‘re fairly cheap and you get to control everything on that device because it’s local and accessible. However, the disadvantage is that when you use local drives for data storage the hard drives may fail, get stolen or even become lost.
The ProStorage anti-static foam storage solutions add an extra safety factor when using local hard drives for safekeeping your data.
Hard Drive vs Cloud Storage
Advantages of Hard Drive Local Storage
• Inexpensive
• The price for hard drives are decreasing every year.
• Fast
• As technology keeps improving transfer speeds increase.
• One Time Cost
• Only have to invest once.
• Secure
• You are the only one who will have access
• Redundancy
• Store two or more drives in 2 different locations to help protect against theft, drive failure and natural disasters like fires or floods.
Disadvantages of Hard Drive Local Storage
• Lost or Stolen
• Once your data is gone, their gone.
• Failure
• Without multiple copies this can lead to complete loss of data, or very expensive attempts via professional data retrieval services.
Advantages of Cloud Storage Services
• Access
• Access data on any device anywhere at anytime
• Automated Security
• Cloud service provides security
• Share Files
• Files can also be shared with other people in other places and on other devices.
• Cost Effective
• Only pay for what is used.
Disadvantages of Cloud Storage Services
• Cloud Storage is Slow
• Large amounts of data must be downloaded.
• Reoccurring Payments
• Requires ongoing storage fees for storage and access.
• Trust
• Can the provider be trusted.
Hard Drive vs Cloud Storage – the Summary
Cloud services are great for small amounts of data that is needed quickly, anywhere, at any time and on any device. However, for larger amounts of data, local hard drive storage has the advantages of quick access to those large amounts of data, without having to download the data.
ProStorage™ anti-static foam containers are the best way to store your local hard-drives in a safe and secure way.