Why local SSDs and hard drives are still superior to the cloud

[HDTV1080P]

Residential 100% fiber optic speeds like 10,000Mbps upload and download is ideal for cloud storage (business users sometimes need 100,000Mbps upload and download speeds). However, some people do not have access to those fast Internet speeds, and therefore local storage on a 30TB hard drive or a fast solid-state drive is ideal. Also, one can purchase 256-bit military level software encryption to get their data secure on local storage and also one can encrypt their data before uploading it to the cloud to offer double layer encryption (one type of personal encryption before uploading to cloud if allowed by the cloud provider and another encryption by the cloud provider). The cloud has the advantage of being able to use the cloud anywhere in the world, however hopefully both local storage and cloud storage will coexist for many decades to come (there is also wide area network storage and virtual private network storage that can access private networked local storage drives located in one's home or business).

The following are some select quotes from the PC World magazine article

“Cloud storage is better, faster, and more affordable per gigabyte than ever before. But it’s not the best way to go for everything, nor can it completely replace local storage and backups. In fact, cloud storage can be drastically inferior to local storage, placing sensitive data in real danger of oversight, theft, and loss.”

“Downloading several terabytes of data from a cloud provider can take hours or even days, depending on the speed of your connection. A local drive, on the other hand, can transfer data way faster and gives you more options on how to actually access that data…”

“And let’s not forget that cloud services can go down permanently and you could lose all your data overnight. Is it likely? Maybe not, especially with giants like Google and Microsoft. They’ll probably give you some kind of heads up… but even so, scrambling to clone all your data before some arbitrary deadline could be a pain. Not so if you maintain local backups, at least of your most important files and folders.”

“If you’re looking after client data, or if you have sensitive personal information that you want to keep away from prying eyes, then storing your data locally gives you more control and privacy.”

“If you’re based in the US, storing data with a cloud provider in Europe comes with GDPR compliance requirements — and penalties for non-compliance. Cloud providers elsewhere are beholden to the laws of their own countries. That means government intervention can compel those companies to hand over your data.”

https://www.pcworld.com/article/2599...the-cloud.html