Thursday, April 26, 2012

The end of personal data storage?

My house server's 1TB hard drive is giving me SMART drive warnings that the disk is about to fail.  I immediately started looking for its replacement and looking into SSD storage which of course costs substantially more.   It was then I realized what do I need this space for anymore?

Once upon a time my entire life revolved around data stored on my server:  Source Code, Documents, Movies, Music, Pictures, Software, etc.  That landscape for me has totally changed in the last couple of years mainly brought about by faster Internet connectivity (currently have 50 / 5 mbps).

I am (or *will be soon) using:
  • Google Docs - Documents
  • Amazon/Netflix/Vudu - Movies / TV
  • Smugmug - Pictures / Personal videos
  • Grooveshark / Slacker - Music
  • Linux - Every program I use is either online or comes from apt repositories
  • *Github - Personal projects / source code
  • *Google Drive - Miscellaneous?

Basically, I dont have any need for personal data storage anymore.  Quite frankly I am curious why anyone else has need of local storage anymore?  Trust?  Re-acquisition costs? Internet Speed?

How about you?

7 comments:

  1. Great blog, I'm just starting mine..

    As far as why I still want/need personal data storage? Because it's mine. Some things I don't want showing up in the cloud. Employees of companies still go rogue occasionally, thanks to our government, nothing you post or store online isn't really safe, and a lot of times the websites themselves take our data and can use it to sell us advertising in the name of making our "experience" better.

    Of course, the few with client side encryption are decent, but still.

    I think that cloud services are very useful. I still maintain my own storage (albeit I am also making it into a HTPC so I get more use out of the same box).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am (or was?) a privacy advocate and can still relate a little. As much as I would like to keep things within my grasp, I just couldnt see much logic in my apprehension to store things offsite.

      Most everything I do with a computer nowadays is online regardless of where my data was stored. If the GOP (or hacker) wanted to spy on my activities, Im pretty sure they have ways beyond my control via my ISP, etc. Quantum computers have been built, Im sure the GOP owns several, and DES / RSA / Blowfish 2048 are probably inadequate to keep activity away from prying eyes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_size#Effect_of_quantum_computing_attacks_on_key_strength

      Given that my privacy on any "connected" computing device is non-existant, I just simply give in to at least the benefits of having my data always available where I go on all of my computing devices.

      Having said that though I still have my private keys on a flash drive ;)

      Thanks for the feedback!

      Delete
  2. I am totally computer illiterate and have continuous challenges with accumulating thousands upon thousands of personal photos and videos on my MAC which I never seem to be able to edit because of the extreme overload and quantity! I have 5 external hard drives I keep dumping stuff in and never seem to retrieve and just don't know what is the best way to handle everything!!! Would you possibly be willing to give advice to someone (WHO DOESN'T HAVE A CLUE)???? How should someone like me best handle photo and video or storage & editing in the simplest of manners?
    Thanks and sincerely hoping for feedback!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I like to think I am computer literate and have a similar problem. Smugmug (http://www.smugmug.com) gives me a low cost account that has unlimited storage in the cloud for both photos and videos. I have a "dump" folder there that I put raw pictures in to keep forever. I then quickly go through it occasionally when I need a good distraction finding pictures / vids that I like and categorizing them for everyone else to see.

      Hope that helps! Sorry for the tardy reply as I didnt see your comment at first.

      Delete
  3. Let’s put it this way, personal storage have had its time already in the data storage tools chronology. It’s a good thing, though that your storage system has evolved with technology. Once or twice, I still encounter people using old storage medium. I think they are afraid of radical transition, or maybe it’s just plain attachment. In any case, are you planning to use the newly launched Amazon Glacier? Seriously, I will.

    Lakisha Rubert

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I will definitely be using Glacier soon to store system backups and more interestingly my CCTV camera footage. As we speak I am setting up Zoneminder on a new 1080p camera I have acquired and am trying to determine the best way to store the "Event" videos.

      Thanks for your comment!

      Delete
  4. Well, let’s take it this way, personal storage is another way (classic way) of storing your important data. The more storage systems of data you have, the more secure and sure you are that you won’t lose your records and that you’ll always have a backup. But it’s good that you also consider internet-based data storage systems, since these are very efficient and easy to use. They allow you to access your data anywhere you are, and anytime you want.

    Ruby Badcoe

    ReplyDelete