Consumers opt for private clouds

Despite public clouds being available for free, many consumers are opting for private personal cloud storage.

This is according to Kalima Toubal, manager for branded products at Western Digital (WD), who says these personal clouds take the form of external hard drives that can be accessed remotely.

She says this is largely because of security concerns, but also because of the data policies of many public cloud providers, such as Dropbox and Microsoft Sky Drive. Toubal points out that many public clouds offer no data protection and maintain the rights to the user's data, even if the user takes it out of the cloud.

Toubal adds that public clouds do not allow for a great deal of free storage, while the subscriptions for extra storage can be pricey.

According to Daniel Mauerhofer, WD's head of public relations for EMEA, there is still a great need to educate consumers about the importance of backing up their content. He says many people do not backup their personal files, such as photographs and videos. He adds that people often only become aware of the importance of backing up their data after their personal data has been lost.

He adds that people first sounded the death knell for HDD storage 30 years ago, yet there is still a demand for HDD.

WD recently set up a new division focused on the SME market, says Stewart Wright, WD's EMEAi senior product marketing manager, SME.

According to Wright, WD sees the opportunity in the SME market as these organisations are also experiencing the challenges associated with explosive data growth.

He adds that with data regulation around compliance, backup is important to SMEs, but many SMEs are not aware of the backup requirements that affect them.

According to him, the company has products tailored to make backup easier for SMEs, such as the WD Sentinel DX4000, which allows users to set up backup periods, so that data is stored for the required length of time.

Mauerhofer says WD will continue to invest in untapped markets, such as SA.

According to him, WD believes it is important to have a local presence in SA, because consumers want a local contact.

He adds that SA will also see great demand for HDD as a result of improved Internet speeds and the proliferation of connected devices.