To protect your data, you should keep a regular and updated data backup. This article will compare local storage with cloud storage, assisting you to choose the more appropriate one for your personal data backups.
In the digital era, data is all around. More and more people pay attention to data protections. Unquestionably, keeping a consistent data backup is most effective. For instance, to safeguard your Outlook data and increase the odds of successful Outlook recovery, you should back up your PST files.
Nowadays, there are two primary backup solutions, namely local storage and cloud storage. Both of them have their own pros and cons. So, which one is more suitable for your data backups? You can refer to the following suggestions. In addition, because local storage can be achieved via multiple media, like external hard drive, USB flash drive and tape, etc., here we will take local storage on external hard drives as an example.
About Local Storage on External Hard Drives
Pros: Backing up your data on external hard drives has a competitive advantage, namely its relatively inexpensive feature. Only by a little money can you procure a cost-effective hard drive. Moreover, with its Plug-and-Play feature, you can back your data as soon as you plug the drive, connecting it to your computer. What’s more, many external hard drives come endowed with data backup software, which will help you a lot in regular data backups. Also, in terms of speed, the external hard drives connected with firewire can work at blazing high speed.
Cons: Of course, it has disadvantages as well. The most obvious one is its vulnerability. For instance, hard drive failures can occur without any warnings due to physical damages, power failures, mechanical failures or logical issues. Hence, to protect the data on the external hard drives, you have to take good care of the drives all the time.
About Cloud Storage
Pros: Cloud storage technology differs from traditional backup options in that the data is stored on the cloud, namely online. Therefore, even if the internal hard drive on your computer goes on strike, the data on the cloud can still be intact.
Cons: When it comes to cloud storage technology, you must concern about its demanding fee. To be honest, the primary downside of cloud storage service is that the cost will be prohibitive if you hope to store a considerable amount of data. Although there are several free cloud storage service, most of them have limits of storage space, such as Google and Dropbox. If you demand additional storage space, you still need to pay for it. Furthermore, if you want to access your data on the cloud, you should connect to Internet consistently.
Select a Better One for Your Personal Data Backups
With respect to selecting a more appropriate backup solution for your data, you should firstly consider how you will be required to access your files, just on your own computer or on any available devices. If you often need to access backed up data from varying computers, undoubtedly cloud-based service is the better one. Plus, some cloud-based services also permit users to access files though tablet PC and smartphones.
From what mentioned above, it seems that cloud service is pretty good. However, it is by no means the better choice for all the computer users. You still ought to figure out your real requirements and common preferences. If you would like to access your data even without Internet connection, local storage must be better.
Author Introduction:
Shirley Zhang is a data recovery expert in DataNumen, Inc., which is the world leader in data recovery technologies, including sql recovery and outlook repair software products. For more information visit www.datanumen.com
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