While mobility has the potential to improve productivity, the multiple device phenomenon can prove problematic from a content perspective - keeping track of what information is stored on which device becomes almost impossible, particularly given the increasing rate at which digital content is created. In addition, users often need to be able to access and share content across devices.
This can create headaches for small businesses, resulting in fragmented data stored on fragmented devices. More than often, resellers are tasked by these businesses to find a solution to resolve these issues. Cloud-based storage is the obvious answer, but for many business users, the public cloud has a number of detracting factors.
The personal cloud has thus emerged to address this need, with private, secure, centralised and accessible storage for any number of devices on different platforms and operating systems, making it the mobile warrior's best friend. This offers significant potential to resellers to offer an appropriate solution at a price point that is suited to the pocket of the small business with a multitude of benefits that a personal cloud offers.
A study conducted by WD earlier this year indicated that consumers in South Africa store their data on average across 14 different electronic or storage devices, including mobile phones, tablets, laptops, personal computers and USB sticks. For business users, this number is likely to be higher, as many mobile warriors use different smartphones and other devices for business and personal applications.
Aside from the difficulty with backing up this information across devices, access and sharing also becomes increasingly challenging the further our data is spread. This is particularly problematic for the mobile warrior. For example, a big presentation may be stored on the laptop of a traveling businessperson, and the laptop is subsequently stolen at the airport. Without a centralised storage solution, this information is lost. In addition, mobile devices tend to have erratic battery life, and batteries tend to go flat at the most inopportune moments - such as right before you need to access vital information. Being able to access the same information from any device, regardless of your geographic location, is highly beneficial for many reasons.
Cloud-based storage the ideal solution as it enables users to store their data centrally and access it from wherever they are as long as they have an Internet connection. However, for many mobile warriors the public cloud is not the ideal solution.
Public cloud offerings typically include limited free storage capacity, and purchasing more storage can be a costly exercise requiring monthly or annual fees to be paid. Many users also have security concerns around keeping private or sensitive business information in a public cloud - and the numerous security breaches these providers have experienced prove these concerns to be well founded. In addition, using a public cloud provider requires all data to be uploaded over the Internet, which in South Africa in particular, where uplink speeds are limited and bandwidth remains fairly expensive in large volumes, can be time consuming and pricey. This is itself creates an opportunity for resellers to offer end user customers the option of a personal cloud.
A personal cloud offers all of the benefits of the cloud with none of the challenges. Desktop and Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices that feature personal cloud capability offer users high capacity for a cost effective, once-off price with no monthly fees involved. Data can be backed up over a local network, saving precious bandwidth, and then accessed from anywhere over the Internet. Data can also be stored in the cloud remotely should this be necessary. Users always know exactly where their data is being stored, and it remains under their full control at all times, ensuring the highest levels of security. In addition, free apps enable seamless connecting and accessing of data anytime, anywhere, from any number of different devices regardless of the platform or operating system they use.
With a personal cloud, users can store, access and share their content across their digital lives - no need to remember which device that important document is stored on, or carry twelve different devices with you wherever you go, you can now access your information from any device, anywhere in the world. Since the data is stored on an actual device in your possession, you always know where it is and can rest assured that it is safe and secure, with minimal risk of being exposed to hackers and cybercriminals. For the mobile warrior with many devices and a job that keeps them constantly on the move, the personal cloud is the ultimate traveling companion.
