The Philippine Online Chronicles

At the beginning of the year, Yahoo Finance listed a few items that any wise consumer ought to avoid buying in 2010 if they can help it, for the simple reason that they can now “expect to see more revolutionary products supplanting old mainstays.”

Among the items listed were external hard drives (HDD), which are quite a curious addition to the list because for most file hoarders, these handy gadgets are still a necessity for keeping years' worth of files.

However, it is also not uncommon to find that some of these external hard drives have failed before their expected lifespan due to overuse or some random mishap which translates, most of the time, to the permanent loss of all stored files with minimal chance of recovery.

Still, an external HDD seems to be the most practical additional storage option available at present because it does have the greatest storage capacity, it remains easily accessible, and it is still the most durable out of those available.

Lower capacity alternatives, such as flash drives and writable DVDs, go only up to about a little more than 4 gigabytes and about 32 gigabytes worth of storage respectively since these are mainly for the easy transport of data. Additionally, compilations of DVDs soon become more trouble than they’re worth since they pile up easily and reorganization tends to be a hassle, and flash drives tend to get infected by viruses.

With these pros and cons, many can still be expected to buy and use external HDDs for some time to come.

However, an alternative file storage option in the form of online backup services may indeed be close to seeing a large boost in consumer use – an amount that may be enough to push external HDDs out of the scene. Companies offering online storage have been around for a few years now, and it seems that the service may soon take off locally.

But, how do they compare?

Online Storage vs. HDDs

To start with, online storage is arguably more expensive than buying hardware. Buying an external HDD will set you back around P2,500 for 160GB while subscription to an online backup service starts at about the same price, or around US$55 (P2,538.26) per year, with storage capacity and features varying from service to service.

There are a variety of companies already offering the service; each one of them targets a specific niche in the market. This means that there is at least one recommended provider for a certain need. For example, there are services that are best for syncing files on the go, there are services that are best for backups, and there are those that clearly best the others in web publishing.

The trade-off for the increased cost would be that, in subscribing to online storage services, you are sure that your files are secure. It was mentioned earlier that among the problems in keeping an external HDD is that hardware failures occur without much warning. The more they are used, the shorter their lifespan gets. When an HDD fails, there is little chance that all files contained in it can be retrieved.

Additionally, some storage services offer unlimited storage space for the aforementioned amount, while some offer free storage plans with up to about 5GB of storage space for people who want to try out the service first or for those who just need to backup a few very important files.

Aside from the basic differences from doing backups on HDDs, there are many other features of online backup services that make the shift even more enticing. What consumers get depend on which service they subscribe to.

Typically though, subscribers are assured that they are to receive satisfactory safeguards against data loss.

To make the backup process easier, most services offer scheduled backup systems to reduce the need for user intervention to a minimum. Data is also stored on enterprise-grade infrastructure in multiple sites to ensure that data loss is prevented. Most service providers also offer multiple versions of stored data so that subscribers can easily pick which version to restore from.

Finally, to ensure privacy, backed up data is encrypted and fingerprinted as it leaves the subscriber’s local network.

Disaster-proof

Meanwhile, some online storage services have also garnered local attention, as previous disasters to hit the metro had also emphasized that there is a need for better storage solutions to keep all important data and documents secure.

It was reported in the Philippine Star that “clouds” are the answer, allowing people to further protect their data. Cloud storage, Manila Standard Today columnist Chin Wong said, is “just a fancy term for online storage,” an idea that has been available “since [the availability of] file hosting services from the early days of the Web.”

Aside from storing files in electronic media such as DVDs and hard drives, people can store them on the Internet – which is typically also described as a cloud of data, because information is stored at multiple locations and is available to users by different means.

While the idea is old, Wong noted, online storage is now “becoming more ubiquitous and more convenient, with services that automatically synchronize content on your local drive with a virtual drive on the Internet and a variety of devices.”

Security trend

The Daily Tribune has also reported on some security trends to watch out for in 2010, including cloud storage catching on as “a growing number of enterprises look for ways to improve storage efficiency and reduce management complexity of their growing environments and "they look to leverage storage architecture designs already deployed by storage service and public cloud providers.”

Symantec has also announced that it was poised to offer a cloud storage platform in the Philippines that would allow companies to “‘mix and match” their server hardware to go on to the public cloud or create their own private cloud.

As for individuals, on the other hand, many have already signed up for free or trial versions of online storage services such as Dropbox and ADrive. It is yet unclear, however, if local consumers will find it more practical to pay for a monthly fee for cloud storage or if they will stick to buying additional HDDs for some time to come.

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What is cloud storage? (storageswiss)

Photo: “King Cloud” by Karen Ka Ying Wong, c/o Flickr. Some Rights Reserved, “My Workspace” by Cory Krug, c/o Flickr. Some Rights Reserved.