Embrace Independence: The Case for Moving Away from the Cloud ⛓️‍💥

In a world where more and more of our life, photos, and documents drift in the digital ether, it's time to reflect on the popular cloud trend and explore the cloud repatriation movement of bringing data in-house.

Storing files in the cloud has been a great way of saving space on a computer for a while now, but as storage providers get bigger and bigger, they may not be as secure, cost effective, and reliable. Just last month, reports emerged of Google Drive users are complaining of lost files. Google acknowledged that files for some users are not available at the moment. What do you when your files are basically owned by someone else? Is it time to reconsider how we store our files? Should we go back to good old fashioned files sitting right in our computers? Why moving away from cloud storage could be worth it:

1. Security
The cloud may be a seemingly secure space, but storing your photos and documents on your computer provides an extra layer of control and security. There is less concern for unauthorized access or data breaches because your files are physically with you. With cloud storage providers, it's important to take into account what features are available for detecting unauthorized access to your files, as some providers, like Google Drive, only provide a record of access logs to your drive when using a paid license. In theory, someone could infiltrate your drive, download your files, and there would be no record of this access if you're using a free license on Google Drive.

2. Cost
To guarantee access to your files, cloud providers charge monthly subscriptions that may increase as your storage needs increase. Google One plans store up to 2TB of files, while Apple iCloud plans offer up to 12TB of storage. Instead of paying a monthly subscription to store and access your files, a one-time payment for an external hard drive may be a more economical alternative over time.

3. Reliable Access
With files stored directly on your computer, you're not at risk of losing access to your files when service outages happen. A service outage could become a huge interruption to your day if you depend on a cloud service for work. Back in 2020, on the first day of remote school for many students and teachers, several teachers reported not being able to access their Google drives they relied on as a virtual classroom tool. Teachers couldn't resume classes until Google resolved the outage several hours later. There are also iCloud users who have reported losing access to their files during unannounced maintenance windows. When your files are stored locally on your computer, a single provider's service outage or maintenance down time won't be a cause for concern.

Here's to safeguarding your digital world 🌐💾. Until next time, keep your data safe and your tech journeys thrilling.

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