10 Benefits of Cloud Storage
It’s 2023, and cloud storage has become one of the most convenient and efficient methods to store data online. With more than 60% of the world’s corporate data stored in the cloud, this service area has exploded, with cloud infrastructure services generating $178 billion in revenue annually. It’s become so big in fact that even big tech has gotten in on the action, with many companies now owning and operating separate data storage facilities.
With cloud computing data storage, a business, rather than storing data at an onsite storage facility, stores data at a remote location, which can be accessed using an internet connection. The cloud computing provider handles the management and security of the storage servers, infrastructure, and networks to guarantee access to data at any time with elastic capacity. Experts estimate that by the year 2025 cloud data storage will exceed 100 ZB.
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Like other technologies and services, cloud storage has its advantages and disadvantages. Here in this article, we will discuss the ten benefits of using a cloud storage service. You should also be aware of the cons, so here we have also provided some significant disadvantages of cloud storage services.
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What are the benefits of cloud storage?
Below are the 10 benefits of cloud-based storage:
- Usability and accessibility
- Security
- Cost-efficient
- Convenient sharing of files
- Automation
- Multiple users
- Synchronization
- Convenience
- Scalable
- Disaster recovery
Let’s dive into all cloud storage advantages one by one.
1. Usability and accessibility
The first of the main cloud storage benefits concerns usability and accessibility. Most of the cloud data storage services come with an easy-to-use user interface and provide a feature of drag and drop. For instance, you can think of Google Drive from Google or iDrive from Apple. They both have a simple interface, and you can easily upload your file on your online drive without any expert knowledge. For example, if you have saved a file in a drive using a mobile device, you can retrieve that file using a computer or any other device with internet connectivity. It doesn’t matter where you are right now. If you have a good internet connection, you can access your files, which are saved online somewhere in the data centers.
2. Security
Before choosing a cloud service for your business, it’s important to make sure that the service provided offers maximum security.
Cloud storage saves your data across redundant servers, so even if one of the data centers collapses, your data will be managed by the other data centers, which makes your data safe and supervised. If all the data centers of the storage provider collapse or are destroyed, only then can data be lost. However, this is highly unlikely, as a cloud storage service is formed of thousands of data centers.
Some cloud storage providers keep copies of your data at different data centers, so even if the data gets lost or corrupted at the server, the backup will be there.
As a tech manager, you know best that security is one of the most significant issues holding back cloud adoption. Cloud Academy’s training library focuses deeply on IT Security, allowing your team to stay up to date with new security breaches and ways to resolve them.
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3. Cost-efficient
Cloud data storage can help to reduce internal expenses. With this technology, the company itself does not need internal resources and support to manage and store its data; the cloud storage vendor handles it all. There are some cloud storage options that provide lifetime storage at an affordable rate which is a win-win offer for medium-to-small businesses and individual users.
4. Convenient sharing of files
All cloud storage options provide file-sharing features, which help you to share your file with other users. You can either send a file to another user or invite multiple users to view your data. Mostly all the vendors provide a cloud environment in which two users using the same cloud service can share their data, though there are only a few service vendors that offer cross-platform file-sharing features.
5. Automation
Cloud storage services work like a hard disk on your system. If you want to store a file in the cloud, it will not affect ongoing tasks. There may be more than one user using a cloud storage service, and the current responsibility of one user would not affect the task of another since it is all managed and automated by the cloud service provider.
6. Multiple users
The same cloud environment can have more than one user associated with it. With cloud storage, multiple users can collaborate with a common file. For instance, you can allow multiple users to access your files and edit them. The authorized person can access your file from any part of the world in real time.
7. Synchronization
Another benefit of cloud storage relates to synchronization. Each cloud storage provider gives the sync feature. With synchronization, you can sync the cloud storage data with any device you want. As we have discussed, we can access our data from any device and any part of the world, but this accessibility is done with the help of synchronization. With proper credentials, you can log in to your subscribed storage service with any device, and you will be able to access your all data that have been stored in that cloud storage. There is no need to copy data from one device to another, but you need a good internet connection to access your files.
8. Convenience
You do not need a hard disk or flash drive to access or view your data — everything is done online. However, if you want to download a file, you may require a storage device or you can download that data to your device. If you want to surf your data, then it would not occupy any space on your device.
Even if you make changes to the data, changes will be reflected on every device that is synced with the storage service. Expert or technical knowledge is not required to use the cloud storage service. All the heavy lifting is managed by the vendor itself.
9. Scalable
Cloud storage is scalable and flexible. If the current plan of storage is not enough, you can upgrade the service plan. And you do not need to move any data from one location to another, the extra space will be added to your data storage environment with some extra features.
10. Disaster recovery
Cloud storage is considered the best solution for both business continuity and disaster recovery, and it eliminates the need to run a separate disaster recovery data center. One of the main advantages of creating a disaster recovery plan using cloud storage services is that you can back up the entire server almost simultaneously. All the information coupled with the systems and applications are grouped into one software block or a virtual server for easy backup and retrieval.
Disadvantages of cloud storage
Below are the main drawbacks of using cloud storage services.
1. Drag and drop
The drag and drop option may move your original data from one location to another, so make sure instead of using the drag and drop option. Simply use the copy-and-paste method.
2. Internet dependency
Without an internet connection, you cannot access your data while downloading the file from cloud storage. If there is an internet failure, it might corrupt the data which you were downloading.
3. Data security and privacy
Many cloud storage vendors lack data security and privacy fields, and there are many cases where the data from the cloud storage gets leaked.
4. Costs
Most of the best cloud storage services are expensive; this is because they are mainly designed for business purposes. If you go for a less expensive plan, you might have to compromise with some of the features.
Conclusion
Over the last ten years, cloud storage services have seen tremendous success in the software world. Nowadays, it is practically a necessity for any company, regardless of size, to use cloud storage to some degree. With its incredible potential, cloud technology is capable of completely revolutionizing how information is stored and communicated.
We hope you are now more conscious of the main benefits of cloud storage, its cons or disadvantages and you’ll be more informed when you need to choose what cloud provider is best for you.
If you want to find out how Cloud Academy can help your business transition to cloud storage or simply optimize its use by training and upskilling your team, feel free to contact us and get a free demo!
