In-Stat says some are in for sticker shock using cloud storage

cloud storage solutions are less a play on user convenience and more a play on control

That is a quote from In-Stat’s recent information alert titled “Why the Cloud Storage Won’t Work for Mobile“.  In the alert In-Stat principle analyst Allen Nogee suggests that local storage, yes local storage will be the avenue of choice for most mobile users when it comes to accessing movies, music, photos, documents, etc. This comes as a surprise considering all of the euphoria surrounding Amazon, Apple, and others’ cloud strategies.

In-Stat suggests that the media moguls are a huge force driving for cloud adoption because it provides them a vehicle to protect their content, and ensure their content is being enjoyed lawfully, because, “Movie studios and the recording industry feel they are losing billions of dollars to unauthorized sharing of digital files.”

The more interesting take is the cost factor. All cellular companies except Sprint have elected to place caps on data usage. Exceding such subscribed caps would result in perhaps significant additional charges to consumers’ cell phone bills. This, and this alone, could have a great impact on cloud storage adoption for richer content like music and movies. Hence the case for local storage. It’s only getting bigger, faster, and more affordable. Three key features that offer a wealth of benefits to the mobile consumer.

What this also points to is opportunity for devices like Seagate’s GoFlex Satellite drive. With 500GB of space and WiFi connectivity to your mobile device, consumers need not worry about data usage caps, or incremental cell charges, or bandwidth constraints. It’s still local storage, granted it’s not actually in the device, but it’s huge when it comes to convenience and piece of mind.

As In-Stat puts it, “Accessing static content, such as music or movies they own can best be done by using on-board storage.  In other words, for mobile, the relatively high-cost of wireless transmission will make it difficult for the cloud to compete with the low cost of storage.”

What’s your take?

Related Posts:

iCloud is more than “a hard disk in the sky”… it’s a NAS in the sky
GoFlex Satellite: it’s not the end of the PC era, it may be just the beginning…
GoFlex Satellite: Wow your audience with 500GB worth of work

2011-06-14T10:32:34+00:00

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3 Comments

  1. Daniel Stanciu June 20, 2011 at 12:09 pm - Reply

    I agree that today, cloud storage solutions are less a play on user convenience and more a play on control. Yet, i think that in the future that will change as the cloud computing and storage will enable new exiting devices and applications.

    We recently discussed a similar topic on LinkedIn (http://lnkd.in/CKtSYd) and here are my thought on this subject:

    The recent trends in electronic devices such as smart phones and tablet PCs are strongly acting on our digital storage related needs. And with that, besides the limited storage required inside the electronic devices, I see two main growing routes for the data storage:

    1. local-external wireless storage devices – a meeting place for all the electronic devices at home (any devices that require storage from TV and smart phones to fitness equipment);
    Today’s advantages of this solution: security, continuous availability, cost
    Tomorrow advantages: security

    2. cloud storage.
    Today advantages: synchronisation of the many electronic devices at different locations, automatic data management
    Tomorrow’s advantages: all of the above + cost

    Note that with the fast growing access to internet at any location, due to the smart phones, continuous data availability will eventually represent no advantage or disadvantage for any of the above. And at least for consumer market, security will represent less and less an issue since most of us already store much personal data in the cloud via e.g. e-mails, search engines, etc. (we just don’t realize that).

    Thus, while I believe that local-external storage is a growing market on a short to midterm, I think that cloud storage will truly be the future of digital storage on long term. Most of the electronic devices will not require much storage as they will only be interfaces between us and the cloud. And I hope that in this trend, magnetic storage will remain the dominant storage solution.

    Finally, I think that for data storage industry “the cloud” is a great trend, since it creates need for more and more storage.

    • Mark Wojtasiak June 20, 2011 at 2:17 pm - Reply

      @Daniel Stanciu Great insights Daniel. Thanks for sharing, and I’ll be sure to check out the discussion on LinkedIn. Thanks – Mark

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