preview

Cloud Storage And Direct The Conversation Of Digital Preservation

Decent Essays

Digital preservation is key in enabling individuals to access, understand, and use information (Meghini). There are many challenges facing digital preservation including limited storage, policies, and cost. To meet these challenges, some have proposed the incorporation of cloud storage in long-term preservation plans; I disagree. This essay seeks to highlight the weaknesses of cloud storage and direct the conversation of digital preservation to more reliable means.
To begin with, the rate of creation of digital data far exceeds the storage available to host it. Berman addresses this alarming trend by explaining that it is not possible to store all of our digital data and that within the next decade, it is highly likely that as more data …show more content…

Moreover, cloud storage provides the option to grant others access to your data for viewing and editing, transforming your data into a group project. Cloud storage is also beneficial in that it is a way to create backups of information. Should disaster strike your computer system, the information you stored using cloud storage would still survive off-site. I can testify to the usefulness of cloud storage. While working as a librarian assistant at a public library, I was introduced to the many benefits of cloud computing and storage. It also comes in handy for the occasional group project as a GSLIS student. How wonderful it is to easily access documents and collaborative projects on the go, away from my desk, without need for contacting my coworkers or fellow students for updates on what they each had accomplished; it is all accessible wherever I have access to the Internet.
However, with the convenience of cloud storage come real risks. Cloud storage is quite attractive, given the advantages previously stated, but there are still great concerns, including reliability and security. Organizations relying on cloud computing must ensure that the third party they’ve entrusted to store their data can guarantee that they can access their information at any time and that their information is safe from the threat of hackers (Berman, 2008, p. ).
There are several

Get Access