Use of the cloud is growing every day. Most people are probably using the cloud without realising they’re doing it, especially if they are an iPhone user or have a Gmail account.
The business cloud along is projected to double in size for the period between January 2013 and December 2015, which shows how quickly it is becoming seen as an essential tool.
Such growth, as well as the increasing use of the cloud on an individual level, has many speculating about how far the potential of the cloud reaches. Is cloud-based backup the future of storage?
Answering the Question
The answer is clear; it is definitely the future of online storage. That isn’t to say that servers or traditional computer hard drives will become obsolete. It is difficult to envisage a time when all the essential data and program files that are set into your system will be stored in the cloud, as you’d need them to start the computer in the first place.
However, there could well be potential for minimizing what is stored on hardware, particularly in terms of speeding up processes and potentially lowering costs.
You can already increase system performance by using memory cards and memory sticks as storage options for ‘non-essential’ files, so using the cloud is potentially just an extension of that process.
The bigger concerns are the questions and barriers that might have to be overcome before we reach a stage where the cloud is used for near 100% of processes and operations.
Security Problems
While cloud security has improved beyond measure in recent years, businesses, in particular, are still wary of some of the flaws still known to exist, even those that were known as far back as 2009! This is perfectly natural, as the last thing a business can afford is lawsuits because customer data has been identified due to a problem in the cloud.
As cloud security becomes more robust, more business owners will become convinced by it, and more will start using it.
What Happens When it Becomes Popular?
We say cloud systems are popular today, but usage is only a speck of where it could potentially end up. We all love the cloud today because it is cost effective and represents a huge saving for most companies against the maintenance of servers and data centres.
People justify the flexibility of the cloud, rightly so, saying you simply add another system to increase capability. Those systems have to come from somewhere, however, and have a cost attached to purchasing and maintaining.
The truth is that no one knows what the endgame will be when demand for the cloud outstrips supply, or even if that will happen, but it is certainly something that should be considered.
Server Use
Businesses are highly likely to want to continue using servers in some capacity so they can turn back to them should the cloud ever fail or cause a problem.
How many businesses are likely to embrace the cloud 100% when they’re still going to pay for servers anyway? This again poses a problem that business owners may need to be convinced can be answered, as losing a server and closing a data centre isn’t an easy thing to reverse, particularly as you’d want to maximise the power and space savings you’d make.
What role will hosting companies like JaguarPC have to play, not just in promoting use of the cloud but in helping people to migrate to it?Cloud backup is the future of storage, but the big question, fuelled by the potential factors we’ve explored here, is to what extent?
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