Remember those old times when everything depended on local storage systems? When secure cabinets full of confidential documents were the best way to keep important data away from prying eyes. Not too long ago hard drives and local storage devices were the trustiest things for individual users as well as large organizations.
The introduction of cloud storage brought a pivotal change in the way we perceived data storage. And today a number of products are built on the basis of online data storage. Whether it is software titan Adobe that embraced cloud storage through its subscription model or Search Engine giant Google that launched Chromebook with as low as 16GB Solid-State Drive proving that we can access all our stuff from the cloud and hard drive space is not a necessity any longer.
While these companies have exemplified the benefits of online data storage, let us give you 5 reasons why data storage is advantageous.
See Also: The complete guide to use iCloud
5 Benefits Of Online Data Storage
Accessibility
As a growing organization or a professional working for an enterprise that has multiple locations, wouldn’t you want your data to be accessible no matter where you are? Organizations were earlier limited when it came to employees working from remote locations because it was difficult for them to make data available for the employees all the time.
Now individuals or organizations can work from different geographical locations without making any compromises to the productivity of the employees. A brand can pick the best brains to work on a project without considerations of where they are located. Companies with multiple branches can easily have their people collaborate and discuss a project without having to bring them together at one location. Online data can be accessed by anyone authorized to access it, at any point in time. It takes away the boundaries of time and location helping teams work more effectively. Accessibility is a blessing and cloud storage has finally granted us this joy.
Cost
The cost of servers, the cost involved in recruiting people to maintain the servers, ensuring that the company has adequate security measures to avoid intruders hacking into the system and the cost of employing consultants and IT teams that can help an organization keep the servers up and running is noteworthy. The costs also include a certain level of risk and threat which you may constantly have to worry about.
The cost of using an online data storage service is lower than that of incorporating your own storage system. Time is also an important factor when it comes to storage. Many companies spend a notable period of time backing up data to traditional storage systems. With online data storage, the need to manually back up data has almost been nullified. You can automate everything and forget the tedious task of backups. All of this comes at an incredibly affordable monthly or annual fee which makes things a lot easier for companies and individuals.
Space
When we think of local storage, we think of local servers that take up important space which could otherwise be turned into productive office space. An individual may feel the same way when it comes to all the space that is taken up by massive files on their systems. When you store data online, you get rid of the problem of space. Online storage offers invisibility in the sense that it does not consume important space on your system.
One of the benefits of cloud storage is that you do not have to invest in computers that have a lot of storage space or a business does not have to spend a lot of money on servers. All you need is an online server which will store your data securely.
Maintenance
Maintaining servers or other storage devices can be a bit of a hassle for us. Leaving the responsibility with an enterprise that is dedicated to maintaining online servers seems a lot more rational. It takes away the burden of worrying about sudden setbacks which you may encounter when your storage device does not work as expected or when your computer crashes and all important data is lost because everything was saved on your computer’s local storage.
Maintenance of servers or any important data is difficult but online storage makes things a lot simpler for small businesses as well as personal individuals who can store all their data online and reduces maintenance costs to a very affordable monthly fee paid for the storage. Those who may not need a lot of storage space may find free options available as well.
Security
Ensuring that you have adequate security for your locally stored data can be time-consuming and expensive too. On the other hand, security for cloud servers doesn’t require additional costs. Your monthly subscription will cover the security of your data as well. With professionals providing the service, you do not have to worry about the extent of security that they will provide to the data stored on their servers.
Online data storage companies store data for a large number of individuals and businesses, this is why they make sure that they use the best security measures to minimize threats and reduce any risks. Unless you invest a lot of money and time, an individual or a small business may not be able to provide the same amount of security to the data they store locally. Security is a benefit of online data storage that can hardly be overlooked.
Conclusion
These advantages of online data storage have encouraged a number of companies and individuals to take their data online. While these are the 5 most noteworthy reasons for storing data online, there are a lot of additional reasons that show how beneficial cloud storage has been. It gives us a peace of mind when it comes to accessing data from wherever we want and whenever we want. With the many layers of security that are applied by cloud storage companies, our data is almost always safer online that it would be locally. The fear of losing important data to sudden system issues is also alleviated when it comes to online data storage. The lists of benefits can go on, and online storage does seem to outweigh local storage any day.
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