Introduction

―Deciding to remember, and what to remember, is how we decide who ‖ -Robert Pinsky, Poet
& Essayist, (1940 – Present). ―History is the memory of things said and done-Carl L. Becker,
Historian, (1873-1945).

Prehistoric cave paintings are one of the earliest historical records of man. French cave
paintings date back to 32,000 years…from the Ice Age. Indicate the life and times of early
man.

Parchment, made from animal skin was the recording media in Europe dating back to the 5th
century BC. Papyrus was the prominent recording media during the 4th century B.C. in Egypt.
Parchment replaced papyrus during the 1st century BC and AD due to its durability and ability
to withstand folding.

The deep space probe Voyager-1, is one of the most distant man-made objects from Earth. It
carries an information including sounds and videos showcasing the diversity of life on earth
… in case it is discovered by an alien civilization. The recording media used is … Gold.

Storage & Computing Devices:

Turing machines are extremely basic abstract symbol-manipulating devices which, despite
their simplicity, can be adapted to simulate the logic of any computer that could possibly be
constructed.

"A Turing machine is essentially a finite-state sequential machine that has the ability to
communicate with an external store of information." Booth (1967). A Turing machine is a
finite-state machine associated with an external storage or memory medium." Minsky (1967).

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Evolution of Computer Storage:
Punched Cards:
• 1725: Basil Bouchon used a perforated loop to store patterns to be stitched on cloth
• Patented by Herman Hollerith in 1884 to for data storage
• Used for ~100 years until mid-1970s

Punched Tape:
• First known to be used in 1846 by Alexander Bain
• Each row stores less than a punched card
• Long strips could be fan-folded (as shown) to store significantly more data than a punched
card

Selectron Tubes:
• Developed by RCA in 1946
• Early form of computer memory (RAM)
• Largest single tube developed was 10 inches and could store 4096 bits of data (4 Kbits =
512 bytes)

The Magnetic Drum:

• 16-inch-long drum
• 12,500 revolutions per minute
• Used in the IBM 650 mainframe
• 10,000 characters of main memory

Magnetic Tape:
• First used by IBM in 1950s
• Could store up to 10,000 punch cards worth of data
• First successful mass storage medium, used well into the 1980s – and continues today for
backup storage in different form factors
Compact Cassette:
• Much like magnetic tape but more compact & portable.
• Invented by Philips in 1963, becoming popular in the 1970s for computer data storage.

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The Floppy Disk:
• First floppy disk introduced in 1969 was an 8-inch Read-Only disk with 80 Kb capacity
• Read/Write versions appeared in 1973 with capacities of 256 Kb
• Floppy disks evolved until the 1990 where a 3-inch disk could store 250 Mb of data

Today’s Hard Disk Drives:

• Introduced by IBM in 1973 as the ―Winchester Disk
• Can store up to 500 GB of data, 120,000 times more that IBMs RAMAC
• Constant improvements, hard disk capacity doubling every 12 months!

World’s First Hard Disk:

• The RAMAC was introduced in 1956 by IBM. Production continued until 1961
• Could store up to 4.4 Mb of data (5 million characters) on 24 magnetical disks
• These ‗Storage Computer’s were leased by IBM for $3,200 per month

The Laser Disc:

• Laser Disc technology was invented in 1958
• Read-only disks commercially available in 1978
• Used to store audio & video at significantly higher quality than technologies available at
the time

The Compact Disc, DVD & Blu-Ray Disc:

• CD’s were developed by SONY and Philips in 1979, available in 1982
• They are smaller than laser discs and could thus store less data
• DVDs are same form-factor as CD’s but store larger amounts of data due to a longer
wavelength of laser light used (780nm Vs. 650nm)
• Blu-Ray disks uses a newer blue-violet laser technology to store even more data than a
DVD, using basically the same form-factor.

Advances in networking technology and an increase in the need for computing resources have
prompted many organizations to outsource their storage and computing needs. This new
economic and computing model is commonly referred to as cloud computing and includes

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various types of services such as: infrastructure as a service (IaaS), where a customer makes
use of a service provider’s computing, storage or networking infrastructure; platform as a
service (PaaS), where a customer leverages the provider’s resources to run custom
applications; and finally software as a service (SaaS), where customers use software that is run
on the providers infrastructure.

Cloud infrastructures can be roughly categorized as either private or public. In a private cloud,
the infrastructure is managed and owned by the customer and located on-premise (i.e., in the
customers region of control). In particular, this means that access to customer data is under its
control and is only granted to parties it trusts. In a public cloud the infrastructure is owned and
managed by a cloud service provider and is located off-premise (i.e., in the service provider’s
region of control). This means that customer data is outside its control and could potentially be
granted to untrusted parties. Storage services based on public clouds such as Microsoft’s Azure
storage service and Amazon’s S3 provide customers with scalable and dynamic storage. By
moving their data to the cloud customers can avoid the costs of building and maintaining a
private storage infrastructure, opting instead to pay a service provider as a function of its needs.
For most customers, this provides several benefits including availability (i.e., being able to
access data from anywhere) and reliability (i.e., not having to worry about backups) at a
relatively low cost.

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What is Cloud Storage?

Cloud storage is a model of data storage in which the digital data is stored in logical pools, the
physical storage spans multiple servers (and often locations), and the physical environment is
typically owned and managed by a hosting company. These cloud storage providers are
responsible for keeping the data available and accessible, and the physical environment
protected and running. People and organizations buy or lease storage capacity from the
providers to store user, organization, or application data.

Cloud storage services may be accessed through a co-located cloud computer service, a web
service application programming interface (API) or by applications that utilize the API, such
as cloud desktop storage, a cloud storage gateway or Web-based content management systems.

Cloud storage is a service model in which data is maintained, managed, backed up remotely
and made available to users over a network (typically the Internet). Users generally pay for
their cloud data storage on a per-consumption, monthly rate. Although the per-gigabyte cost
has been radically driven down, cloud storage providers have added operating expenses that
can make the technology more expensive than users bargained for. Cloud security continues
to be a concern among users. Providers have tried to deal with those fears by building security
capabilities, such as encryption and authentication, into their services.

There are three main cloud-based storage architecture models: public, private and hybrid.

Public Cloud:
Public cloud storage services provide a multi-tenant storage environment that is most suited
for unstructured data. Data is stored in global data centers with storage data spread across
multiple regions or continents. Customers generally pay on a per-use basis similar to the utility
payment model. This market sector is dominated by Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3),
Amazon Glacier for cold storage, Google Cloud Storage, Google Cloud Storage Nearline
for cold data and Microsoft Azure.

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Private Cloud:
Private cloud, or on-premises, storage services provide a dedicated environment protected
behind an organization's firewall. Private clouds are appropriate for users who need
customization and more control over their data.

Hybrid Cloud:
Hybrid cloud is a mix of private cloud and third-party public cloud services with orchestration
between the platforms for management. The model offers businesses flexibility and more data
deployment options. An organization might, for example, store actively used and structured
data in an on-premises cloud, and unstructured and archival data in a public cloud. In recent
years, a greater number of customers have adopted the hybrid cloud model. Despite its
benefits, a hybrid cloud presents technical, business and management challenges. For example,
private workloads must access and interact with public cloud storage providers, so
compatibility and solid network connectivity are very important factors. An enterprise-level
cloud storage system should be scalable to suit current needs, accessible from anywhere and
application-agnostic.

Cloud storage is based on a virtualized infrastructure with accessible interfaces, near-instant

elasticity and scalability, multi-tenancy and metered resources. Cloud-based data is stored
in logical pools across disparate, commodity servers located on premises or in a data center
managed by a third-party cloud provider. Using the RESTful API, an object storage protocol
stores a file and its associated metadata as a single object and assigns it an ID number. When
content needs to be retrieved, the user presents the ID to the system and the content is
assembled with all its metadata, authentication and security.

In recent years, object storage vendors have added file system functions and capabilities to
their object storage software and hardware largely because object storage was not being
adopted fast enough. All backup applications use the object storage protocol, which is one of
the reasons customers first tried backing up their data to the cloud.

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 History of Cloud Storage

One of the most trending techie words these days is ―the cloud. Most people have a vague
idea of this sort of ethereal method of storage, although the jargon can be somewhat
misleading.

Colloquially, ―cloud storage and ―online storage are generally equivalents. Technically, though, the
cloud is just one kind of online data storage. We’ve come a long way in our ability to store data, and
online storage and cloud services have only recently become mainstream. We have seen how
it takes a number of innovative minds to produce a new technology, and it takes subsequent
companies offering their own improvements to shake up the market. With this history in mind,
we can only imagine the technologies that are yet to come.

When Amazon.com started its Web Services division in 2002, few people expected it to
revolutionize the technology industry. By 2006, Amazon was ready to launch its S3 cloud
storage service. S3 was designed specifically for software developers. Several very popular
and data-intensive websites now use S3 for cloud storage, including Netflix, Pinterest,
Dropbox. Google launched a similar service in 2010 called, of course, Google Storage.

By 2005, there were several newly founded companies planning to release consumer-aimed
online storage. Carbonite & Mozy were the leaders of the pack with their coinciding releases
the following year. In May 2006, Carbonite released its unlimited backup service. Its partnerships
with Microsoft and Packard Bell gave Carbonite’s introduction to the world a lot of visibility and
credibility.

Dropbox was founded by MIT students, one of whom was frustrated with continually losing
his USB flash drive. When Drew Houston realized that current online storage was too slow or
size limited, Houston developed his own solution. Soon Houston and his co-founders were
able to obtain seed money to launch their new service. Dropbox uses Amazon’s S3 service to
store consumer data.
When Google launched its new Drive feature, everyone took notice—albeit by force. If you
had a Gmail account, as hundreds of millions of users did, Google was quick to introduce you

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to its cloud-based storage workspace. The added ability to share and edit files was not a new
concept, but it was incredibly well done. Instead of simply backing up your files or servicing
your favourite website’s data needs, Google Drive was intended as a personal virtual
workspace.

In recent years, online storage and cloud services have become somewhat of a ―race to the bottom.
Hundreds of companies with dozens of lead competitors are offering up free online storage
through trials or freemium pricing. The amounts of storage have become seemingly unlimited,
but the server capacities are quickly becoming strained. Companies like Google are
experimenting to find cheaper ways to maintain their servers, including using sea water as a
cooling mechanism.

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How it works:

The entire process of cloud storage can be broadly explained from two points of view – the
role of the service provider and the role of the consumer.

The basic role that a cloud storage provider plays in this process is to regulate a base of storage
located at several discrete sites. It’s a simpler and easier way to keep one's data stored on a
cloud storage, since the monitoring techniques and administrative control is far better that any
other storing approaches. In a cloud storage, they have thousands of separate servers that are
mutually connected in a grid configuration. This is how the entire system works as an
individual directory.

On the other hand, for personal use or a small business, there are two options to choose from
– the private or the public cloud storage. One can extend the storage area on his server by
integrating a segment of archived data into the cloud. This is just another way to save more
space so he can update his outdated software and applications.

The most vital step of using a cloud storage is to back up user's digital data as fast as he/she
can. We’ve used the adjective ―vital, because this is the only way to secure all data from a

permanent failure of your hard drive or corruption of data due to malfunction of virus attack. If
luck doesn’t favor and something unpleasant like this occur, all user have to do is to manage a new
hard drive and restore all of his/her saved data directly from the cloud. Thus, he/she can keep
him/herself clean from losing anything and his/her data remains safe as it is.

The brilliant aspect of a Cloud Storage is that user's employees and clients can get access to
the data without the risk of handling confidential information via internet. Cloud storage has made
data sharing task easier than ever before. There’s no need to handle thousands of emails now. Just
upload the files in the cloud and share the link with whomever user want. The recipients can
check out the file anytime they wish and download it readily. This is how the basic purposed
is served and your data stay secured under your administrative control.

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 Popular Cloud Storage

Google Drive
Google Drive is a file storage and synchronization service developed by Google. Launched on
April 24, 2012, Google Drive allows users to store files in the cloud, synchronize files across
devices, and share files. In addition to a website, Google Drive offers apps with offline
capabilities for Windows and macOS computers, and Android and iOS smartphones and
tablets. Google Drive encompasses Google Docs, Sheets and Slides, an office suite that permits
collaborative editing of documents, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings, forms, and more.
Files created and edited through the office suite are saved in Google Drive.

Google Drive offers users 15 gigabytes of free storage, with 100 gigabytes, 1 terabyte, 10
terabytes, 20 terabytes, and 30 terabytes offered through optional paid plans. Files uploaded
can be up to 5 terabytes in size. Users can change privacy settings for individual files and
folders, including enabling sharing with other users or making content public. On the website,
users can search for an image by describing its visuals, and use natural language to find specific
files, such as "find my budget spreadsheet from last December". The website and Android app
offer a Backups section to see what Android devices have data backed up to the service. A
Quick Access feature can intelligently predict the files users need.

Google Drive is a key component of G Suite, Google's monthly subscription offering for
businesses and organizations. As part of select G Suite plans, Drive offers unlimited storage,
advanced file audit reporting, enhanced administration controls, and greater collaboration tools
for teams.

Following the launch of the service, Google Drive was heavily criticized by some members of
the media for its privacy. Google has one set of Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
agreements that cover all of its services, meaning that the language in the agreements grants
the company broad rights to reproduce, use, and create derivative works from content stored
on Google Drive. While the policies also confirm that users retain intellectual property rights,
privacy advocates raised concerns that the licenses grant Google the rights to use the
information and data to customize advertising and other services Google provides. In contrast,

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other members of the media noted that the agreements were no different from competing cloud
storage services, but that the competition uses "more artful language" in the agreements, and
also stated that Google needs the rights in order to "move files around on its servers, cache
your data, or make image thumbnails".

As of October 2014, Google Drive has 240 million active users, and as of September 2015, it
has over one million organizational paying users.

Google gives every user 15 GB of free Drive storage space, which is shared across files in
Google Drive, messages and attachments in Gmail, and pictures and videos in Google Photos.
Google Docs, Sheets and Slides files do not count towards the storage limit. An unlimited
number of photos at maximum 16 megapixels and videos at maximum 1080p resolutions are
stored for free using the "High quality" setting in Google Photos. Using the "Original quality"
setting uses Google Drive quota.

Dropbox

Dropbox is a favourite in the cloud storage world because it's reliable, easy to use, and a breeze
to set up. Your files live in the cloud and you can get to them at any time from Dropbox's
website, desktop applications for Mac, Windows and Linux (Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora or
compile your own), or the iOS, Android, BlackBerry and Kindle Fire mobile apps.

You can store any kind of file in Dropbox, by either uploading to the website or adding it with
the desktop apps. Those apps live in your file system so that you can easily move files from
your computer to the cloud and vice versa by dragging and dropping them into your Dropbox
folder. The service automatically and quickly syncs your files across all of your devices, so
you can access everything, everywhere. There is no size limit on files you upload to Dropbox
with the desktop or mobile apps, but larger files can take several hours to upload, depending
on your connection speed.

Dropbox gets a lot of praise for its clean design, and rightfully so. Though I am not a fan of
Dropbox's website because the design is very basic and it doesn't give you many options to

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view and organize your files, its mobile apps and desktop apps are beautiful and easy to
navigate.
Dropbox gives its users plenty of opportunities to get extra storage to beef up the paltry 2GB
you get when you sign up. If you participate in the quick Getting Started tutorial, you get
250MB. Turn on the automatic photo upload feature on any of the mobile apps to get 3GB of
extra space (you can get only 3GB total, not per device). You can earn 500MB for each friend
you refer to Dropbox who actually signs up for the service, up to 16GB total, or 32 referrals.

Where it excels:

• Dropbox works equally well on PCs and Macs, Android and iOS.
• The service is so simple and elegantly designed, that it's easy for anyone to master.
• Its desktop applications seamlessly blend with your computer's file system.

Where it falls flat:

Dropbox's website doesn't let you control how your files are displayed.

Best for:

Simple sharing when you use tons of different kinds of devices

OneDrive

OneDrive (previously SkyDrive, Windows Live SkyDrive, and Windows Live Folders) is a
file-hosting service operated by Microsoft as part of its suite of online services. It allows users
to store files as well as other personal data like Windows settings or BitLocker recovery keys
in the cloud. Files can be synced to a PC and accessed from a web browser or a mobile device,
as well as shared publicly or with specific people.

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OneDrive offers 5 GB of storage space free of charge; additional storage can be added either
separately or through subscriptions to other Microsoft services including Office 365 and
Groove Music.

At its launch the service, known as Windows Live Folders at the time (with a codename of
SkyDrive), was provided as a limited beta available to a few testers in the United States. On
August 1, 2007, the service was expanded to a wider audience.

On June 18, 2015, Microsoft launched an improved design of OneDrive for the web.[9] In
early 2016 Microsoft removed the unlimited storage plan for Office 365 Home, Personal and
University packages, reduced the free OneDrive storage from 15 GB to 5 GB, and replaced
paid subscriptions to 100 GB and 200 GB plans to a $1.99 per month 50 GB plan. These
changes caused major controversy with users, some of whom petitioned Microsoft to reverse
the plans. By November 21, 2015, in response to Microsoft's November 2 announcement, over
70,000 people had taken to the official OneDrive user voice to voice their concerns. According
to Microsoft these changes were a response to people abusing the service by using OneDrive
to store PC backups, movie collections, and DVR recordings.

As of 2016 the service offers 5 GB of free storage for new users. Additional storage is available
for purchase. The amount of storage available has changed several times. Initially, the service
provided 7 GB of storage and, for one year, an additional 3 GB of free storage to students.
Microsoft announced on December 11 of 2016 that it would allow existing users to request to
have up to 30GB of free storage unaffected by the reduction, and said it would fully refund
customers of Office 365 not satisfied with the 1TB cap, among other redress.

OneDrive allows users to embed their Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents into other web
pages. These embedded documents allow anyone who visits these web pages to interact with
them, such as browsing an embedded PowerPoint slideshow or perform calculations within an
embedded Excel spreadsheet.

Data stored on OneDrive is subject to monitoring by Microsoft, and any content that is in
violation of Microsoft's Code of Conduct is subject to removal and may lead to temporary or

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permanent shutdown of the account. This has led to privacy concerns in relation to data stored
on OneDrive. Due to Internet censorship in Iran, OneDrive is not available in that country.

Microsoft has a similarly named but unrelated software plus service offering called OneDrive
for Business (previously SkyDrive Pro). While OneDrive is a personal storage service on the
web, OneDrive for Business is a managed cloud storage for business users that replaces
SharePoint Workspace. The physical medium on which the information is stored can be either
hosted on-premises or purchased as service subscription from Microsoft.

Box
Anyone can sign up for a free individual account on Box, but the service's endless list of sharing
and privacy features were built specifically for business and IT users. Beyond the basic cloud
storage setup, where you can store just about any kind of file, Box lets you share files with
colleagues, assign tasks, leave comments on someone's work, and get notifications when a file
changes. You can preview files from Box's website and even create basic text documents in
Box. Like other cloud storage services, you can download a desktop app and sync your files
between your hard drive and the cloud.

Box also gives you a lot of control over the privacy of your files. For example, you can decide
who in your business can view and open specific folders and files, as well as who can edit and
upload documents. You can even password-protect individual files and set expiration dates for
shared folders.

Business users can also connect other apps, such as Salesforce and NetSuite, so that you can
easily save documents to Box. There are also plug-ins for Microsoft Office and Adobe
Lightroom that let you open and edit files saved to Box from those applications.

Where it excels:
Box comes with tons of tools for businesses, including collaboration and file privacy control.

Where it falls flat:

The service's endless list of sharing and privacy features can be lost on someone who's just
using the service for personal storage.

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Because of all those features, it can feel overwhelming to navigate the Box website if you're
only trying to manage a few files and folders.

Best for:
Teams of employees working together on projects, and large companies that need a place to
securely share documents with everyone.

Importance of Cloud Storage:

Cloud service and storage providers offer valuable IT solutions for businesses of all sizes.
Originally thought of as more for personal and less for business, cloud storage for business is

following in the footsteps of many personal technologies adapted for business. As Steve Knutson,
Marco CTO, said, ―From storage to software to security, cloud services are taking over almost
every aspect of technology. Many businesses can benefit from comprehensive cloud services –
hosted applications, Infrastructure as a Service and more – and the transition often begins with
data storage needs.

Five Advantages of Cloud Storage for Businesses:

Many people reap the benefits of the cloud for personal reasons, but most businesses have yet
to take the leap. Whether your current on-premise data storage seems sufficient or you simply
haven’t taken time to consider cloud storage, reviewing these advantages is a good place to start.

• COST SAVINGS

The first benefit, and perhaps most important in the minds of many business owners, is the
cost advantage. Cloud storage is generally more affordable because providers distribute the
costs of their infrastructure and services across many businesses. Moving your business to
the could eliminates the cost of hardware and maintenance. Removing these capital
expenditures and the associated service salaries from your technology expenses can
translate into significant cost savings.

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You’ll also want to consider the increased productivity cloud storage allows for that causes
the following benefits.

• SIMPLIFIED CONVENIENCE

All you will need within your office is a computer and an internet connection. Much of
your server hardware will no longer be necessary, not only saving you physical space but
eliminating the need for maintenance and employee attention. Your cloud storage provider
will maintain, manage and support your business. This frees up employees who would
otherwise cover the tasks necessary for keeping your data safe and your server(s) up and
running.

• ENHANCED SECURITY

Instead of having hardware within your office, cloud storage is housed in a data center,
providing enterprise level security, which is cost prohibitive for most individual
businesses. There is also no single point of failure in the cloud because your data is backed
up to multiple servers. This means that if one server crashes, your data stays safe because
it is stored in other locations. The potential risk of hardware malfunction minimizes
because your data is safely stored in redundant locations.

• MOBILITY OPPORTUNITIES

The mobility benefits provided by the cloud are rapidly increasing for businesses of all
sizes. In today’s world of connectivity, we are able to work (and play) whenever and
wherever. While you're waiting for a flight at the airport or at home with a sick child, you
can still work – and work efficiently. Before cloud storage came along, working outside
the office was problematic and more time consuming than it needed to be. Remember
having to save your files on your laptop and then returning to work and needing to transfer
your updated files to ensure others have access to the latest version? I sure do.

This example highlights another one of the advantages of cloud storage - enabling mobility.
If you work from multiple devices – i.e. phone, tablet and desktop computer – you won’t

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have to worry about manually adding the latest file onto each device. Instead, the newest
version of your document is stored in the cloud and will be easily accessible from any of
your devices.

• SCALABLE SERVICE
With cloud storage, you pay for what you use, as you use it. You do not need to anticipate
how much storage space you will need for the year and risk paying for unused space or
running short. You can adjust the resources available through cloud storage providers and
pay based on your current needs, modifying as they change.

The Risks of Cloud Storage

• Network Dependent Storage Method

One of the basic drawbacks of cloud storage is that user need to stay connected to the
internet. If there is an internet outage or a service interruption, user have no other option
that to wait till everything becomes okay again. If things do not change, user have no way
to get back your data. When user is on a deadline or making a transaction or working on
something super important, this can be a disaster!

• Hybrid System Creation

There are a lot of companies dealing with extremely sensitive data sets. For instance, an
organization working under the government or a banking institution who prefer to use their
own IT services, will never want to place their data under a third-party company, even
though this is more beneficial. These companies want hybrid data systems, which cannot
be provided by the public cloud structures. This is one of the flaws featured by a cloud
storage system.

• Centralization
When a company or an individual uses a cloud storage service, all the data are outsourced
to a central authority. In case of any outage, network dependency takes over and can cause
serious threat due to the centralization of all data. When the server of the service provider
collapses, this is going to affect each and every client subscribed to that cloud storage
service.

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 • Data Security
In-house data storage solutions are definitely risky, but the data that user is storing off-
site can pose a greater risk. Although user have total control over that data, user is
leaving it vulnerable to dangerous attacks. This data will travel more than any data
stored in user's local server. That way, it’s much easier to intercept this data. Although
the encryption methods are becoming stronger with time, the hacking skills of potential
violators are also becoming stronger. This could cause a great damage to user's credible
information.

Application of Cloud Storage in the present world

The advent of cloud computing has given rise to trends—such as the consumerisation of IT,
big data and enterprise mobility—which have created increasingly connected data ecosystems,
and this is driving demand for digital storage capacity. The cloud has been regarded as a threat
to traditional storage solutions, but that is an incorrect assumption—rising rates of cloud
adoption will increase demand for the hard drives and solid-state drives that comprise cloud
storage, creating more opportunities for storage vendors. The solid-state drive (SSD) market
has seen a spike in growth, but hard disk drive (HDD) technology is far from dead. As
consumers and businesses consider a mixture of high-performance and affordable options, the
need to seamlessly transition between these solutions will be even greater.

The TechNavio report Global Hard Disk Drive Market 2011-2015 predicted an 8.1%
compound annual growth rate for the global HDD market through 2015. An IDC release from
January 2012 predicted the market for SSDs to experience a CAGR of 51.5% from 2010
through 2015. IDC attributed the significant growth in the SSD market to several factors,
including:
SSD prices are expected to fall below US$1 per gigabyte in the second half of 2012. Increased
popularity of caching solutions, such as dual drives (systems containing both an SSD and an
HDD). Enterprise adoption of SSD storage to complement HDD solutions. While it is not the
only storage market that has seen significant growth, the report cited the demand from large
enterprises as a significant contributing factor to the market's projected CAGR.

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• Data centers: Public cloud storage
The large enterprise public cloud arena demonstrates the rapid pace of cloud adoption and
highlights some of the crucial factors that will determine which storage solutions will be
best in class. Worldwide public cloud spending is expected to grow from US$91 billion in
2011 to US$207 billion in 2016. Although business process-as-a-service (BpaaS) currently
represents the largest area of enterprise cloud spending, platform-as-a-service (PaaS),
software-as-a-service (SaaS) and infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) are growing faster. One
point of value that can be gleaned from this is that the potential of the cloud is increased
with interoperability. Storage vendors that offer multiple modes of delivery and enable
customers to easily migrate between platforms can take advantage of this trend toward
customization.

• Small business: Private cloud storage

As is the case in the large enterprise space, small businesses' demand for digital storage is
rising, and this has created a need for more efficient solutions, according to a TechNavio
report. Another crucial element TechNavio analysts identified relates to interoperability,
as storage systems, even at the small-business level, must increasingly accommodate
various operating systems.

Network-attached storage (NAS), which is essentially multiple bundled hard drives and
associated software and services, represents an attractive solution given the needs of small
businesses, according to a TechNavio report released in July 2012. The NAS market is
expected to experience a 51.1% CAGR from 2011 through 2015. In addition to a significant
number of features added to NAS devices, advances in NAS technology have allowed for
high-performance servers that handle an increasingly large number of client requests. The
service capability of the servers increases considerably, and a reduction in the latency
period is observed," the report said. The responses are received more quickly, and high-
performance computing is supported across the network.

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• Consumers: Personal cloud storage

Consumers represent an influential factor in the growth of cloud storage. Gartner forecasts
that 36% of all consumer digital content will be stored in the cloud by 2016. Additionally,
worldwide capacity demands will increase significantly from 329 exabytes in 2011 to 4.1
zettabytes in 2016.

Gartner also predicts the average household's storage capacity will increase significantly
within the next several years, going from 464GB in 2011 to 3.3 terabytes in 2016. The
growing popularity of camera-equipped devices such as smartphones and tablets has
allowed consumers to create a large amount of digital content, leading to rising capacity
demands to store that content. Gartner expects cloud storage and syncing service providers
to become more popular as demands outpace the capabilities of social networking websites,
which are currently used to house a large amount of digital content.

Automated syncing will play a critical role in the consumer storage market as users
transition from on-premise to cloud storage solutions. Gartner expects the on-premise
market to fall to 64% in 2016, down from 93% in 2011. However, another Gartner forecast
predicted 90% of all connected consumer devices will feature cloud services for accessing
content. This increase in cloud-connected data will not only drive the demand for storage
capacity, but also increased functionality among solutions.

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Conclusion

As organizations grapple with data growth, they must figure out how to manage the expanding
scope and diversification of data in a manner that allows for valuable and timely analytics and
subsequently for long-term retention as needed. By choosing wisely when it comes to enabling
sync-n-share, IT can both protect its role and dramatically expand the services IT can offer to
its users while gaining efficiencies across a number of different systems. The market for sync-
n-share solutions is quickly expanding as organizations seek to control data access while at the
same time maximizes the value derived from data.

As data needs grow, organizations will increasingly look to the cloud for cost-effective ways
to store, manage, and leverage the data they need to run their businesses. The solutions they
choose will need to incorporate both object-based storage and strong metadata capabilities that
support multitenancy and the ability to find and access data that users need regardless of where
that data resides. Ultimately, customers also want the ability to choose the cloud delivery
model or models that best suit their access, security, scalability, and compliance needs.

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