The continuous expansion and ever growing popularity of cloud computing has brought with it a vast amount of options available to consumers, changing the way we interpret, handle and store both our personal data, as well as the ever-increasing amounts of data that is now readily available to us. The immediate accessibility of data made available to us via cloud-based technologies as well the flexibility that cloud-based storage devices offer have greatly increased our capacity to consume and store larger amounts of data without having to invest in physical storage media devices. We are now storing more data of countless varieties than ever before on shared cloud-based platforms, and while these platforms will continue to gain popularity, many people still rely on more traditional storage devices to safeguard data that they consider to be private or critical, believing that cloud-based storage cannot offer an adequate guarantee of protection, which leads us to the question of just how safe your trusted storage devices are?
How safe is your data in the Cloud?
Storing data in the cloud has many benefits that appeal to consumers for both professional and personal reasons. Storing data in the cloud is easy, data can be synched automatically to cloud platforms such as iCloud and Dropbox, protecting data that resides on a variety of physical devices, rendering it accessible from different devices, particularly in the event that the device is stolen or lost. Cloud-based storage offers the additional benefits of allowing for data that is stored on cloud-based storage devices to be easily shared amongst users, and are often free to use up to a certain data amount, at which point consumers only need pay for what they use.
The Dark side of the Cloud
The problem with using cloud-based storage models exclusively for data storage, and particularly critical or sensitive data is that the safety of your data cannot be completely guaranteed. Cloud-based storage services, particularly those of the “free to use” variety are only able to offer a best effort protection guarantee and one need look no further than the recent spate of cyber-attacks that have seen private photos leaked on public forums to prove that online storage devices are not infallible in many cases. Another concern with online storage devices is that data is stored in its original format and is not encrypted in any way, which should be a major concern for anyone storing personal or business-critical data, while data that may have been corrupted would be uploaded in its corrupted format.
Owing to these valid concerns, many users still place their trust in physical storage media such as external hard drives to ensure that their data is kept safe and available when needed, holding the view that external devices eliminate the threat of malicious attackers gaining access to personal or critical data. External storage devices, however, present their own set of challenges when attempting to safely store data. Data that is stored on external storage devices is often stored as a single copy of the data, and the main and most obvious concern about external devices is the ever present risk of disk failure, or the physical device being dropped, lost or stolen.
Reliable Storage is Possible
Owing to our reliance on digital data, safeguarding and storing it securely is of paramount importance. The Redstor backup Pro software suite offers a variety of backup and recovery solutions, whether entirely cloud based, on local storage devices or hybrid storage options. Their FIPS compliant encryption methods ensure the safety of your data regardless of its location, while their innovative patching methods transfer only changes to selected data, allowing for large data sets to be protected while negating lengthy transfer times and the over-utilisation of bandwidth. The hardware agnostic design of the software ensures that data can be stored both on privately owned storage devices, as well as on a variety of cloud-based storage mediums on offer, while the built-in mirroring functionality allows for numerous copies of the data to be stored at different locations. Securing your data is of critical importance, however it is vital that data is not only accessible when needed, but guaranteed to be kept safe.
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