Users Will Be Storing Upto 33% Of Their Files in The Cloud By 2016

Cloud storage as a means of use and backup will grow by a significant amount in the next few years. A Gartner report says that more users will be using the massively distributed computing phenomena to store up to 33% of their personal data. The proliferation of smart and portable computing devices has made it possible to access their data from anywhere. This access has resulted in the increased use of cloud storage services like Google Drive and Dropbox . As of now, very few of us, at least here in India store data online. With the increase in mobile Internet and smartphone usage, we could see users discovering the ease of cloud storage and computing. Source: Getty Images According to Gartner, the amount of data hosted on the cloud for personal storage amounted to 7% in 2011. The worldwide consumer digital storage are projected to grow from the current 329 exabytes in 2011 to 4.1 zettabytes in 2016! Shalini Verma , Principal Research Analyst at Gartner feels that Digital Content and its spread will be much more rapid than what is presently observed. “Historically, consumers have stored content on their PCs, but as we enter the post-PC era, consumers are using multiple connected devices, the majority of which are equipped with cameras. This is leading to a massive increase in new user-generated content that requires storage. With the emergence of the personal cloud, this fast-growing consumer digital content will quickly get disaggregated from connected devices.” Besides personal storage of data, there is another powerful factor which will ultimately be the biggest contributor to above mentioned statistic. The need to access data and share with friends, acquaintances and the general public is pretty powerful and is definitive of distinct socio-cultural changes that the Internet has made possible due to open dissemination and availability of information. Today’s smartphones come equipped with all kind of means to help facilitate the creation of user-generated content. User-generated content is rarely kept to oneself and is freely disseminated on the web. The advance being made in smartphone technology will also result in sharper photos, clear videos and high quality music. All this will be shared by users with each other which will result in a lot of space on the cloud being occupied by consumer content. Why will social media lead the adoption of cloud storage? Well, because social networking websites are the only ones which offer unlimited space for you to upload your content and share it with the world. Cloud storage services like Dropbox offer comparatively little space. Google Drive offers 5 GB free while Dropbox can actually give you 18 GB storage space (you have to jump through some hoops for it). Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter offer you theoretically unlimited space for your content. The average storage per household will increase from 464 GB in 2011 to almost 3.3 TB in 2016. That is a huge growth indeed! The HDD shortage crisis triggered by floods in Thailand may have also been the cause for the increasing shift to the Cloud which was seen between 2011 and 2012. The Gartner study has projected their figure based on this increase in cloud usage. Cloud Storage also some very valid concern points. Your personal data residing on some company’s server is weird enough but how can these companies guarantee the security of our data. You must have heard of the LinkedIn password hack that happened recently. LinkedIn is not a careless company, yet they were compromised. My knowledge of computing makes me say this comfortably: Renegade hackers are always 2 steps ahead of the game. This increasing shift towards the cloud will give these renegades enough material to compromise you. How do you think we should stop it? We need better security , better algorithms and a sense of cautiousness in our approach to storing personal stuff online. A complete shift to the cloud is imminent. Do you think this is a good thing? Share your opinions with us in the comments. Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency

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