Risks of using your own hardware to store and share data

Hard drives, SSDs, USB sticks, NAS, cloud: these are the options for external data storage. The ideal solution for storing media should be large, fast and secure. Each solution offers its advantages and disadvantages. To give you an insight into these advantages and disadvantages and to help you find the ideal storage solution for your business, we have summarised them for you in the following blog.

What storage methods are there and what are their advantages and disadvantages?

External Drives

Advantages

• Plug and play - external hard drives must be connected to the device and can store your data on it as soon as it is connected to the device.
• You can easily take your documents and folders with you, which simplifies transferring them to other devices.
• Files can be easily stored and transferred with external drives.

Disadvantages

• Writing and reading data is susceptible to physical damage. To avoid data errors, you must handle the hard drive carefully.
• If your hard drive is stolen, your data can fall into the wrong hands.
• If you store your data on your laptop's hard drive, it will slow down over time.

NAS - Network Attached Storage

Advantages

• Data transfer is much faster than USB.
• It is possible to share folders and make them available at any time.

Disadvantages

• NAS will never be able to match the speed of an internal hard drive.
• Has higher impact on energy bill compared to other options.
• Setting up the NAS is time-consuming.

Cloud Storage

Advantages

• Flexible, as data is accessible from anywhere.
• The right cloud provider offers a secure and trustworthy cloud environment.
• Online collaboration and file sharing with other users is easy and user-friendly.

Disadvantages

• The synchronization speed depends on the cloud providers and internet speed.
• Not all cloud providers are transparent in handling data.