One of the major appeals of cloud storage is its convenience. When these services are working properly, users can access their data and files at anytime, regardless of their location. Many service providers make big promises regarding availability, vowing to maintain a strict adherence to uptime. In practice, however, not every organization is able to keep those promises. Outages and service downtime have become a fact of life within the cloud storage industry, reinforcing the need for individuals and small businesses to have a physical alternative waiting in the wings.

Cloud storage disruptions are not limited to small-time, fly-by-night providers; according to CRN, some of the most widely used services – including Amazon Web Services and Yahoo Mail – have suffered substantial periods of downtime. Even when using a respected and established vendor, users should plan for outages to occur. In all likelihood, at some point, cloud users will run into trouble with the hosted storage solutions.

The most recent service disruption affected Dropbox, a cloud storage service provider popular with consumers and business users alike. According to Myce’s Jan Willelm Aldershoff, Dropbox went offline for approximately two days, preventing clients from reaching their hosted data. Although company officials stressed that the incident did not affect the integrity of their customers’ stored files, concerns abound regarding the potential for similar events to occur in the future.

Dropbox users look for alternatives
VentureBeat’s Jordan Novet reported that numerous Dropbox customers took to the Web to voice their complaints over the service disruption. He noted that many individuals vowed to cancel their subscription with the service provider and pursue alternative storage solutions.

“Now that syncing is finally working again, I can begin migrating my data to another service,” one user stated, according to Novet. “I expect better customer service for a product that is twice as expensive as Google Drive and Skydrive. My subscription is up in the next month but I won’t be renewing.”

Even those who choose to continue using cloud-based storage solutions may harbor some concerns regarding the reliability of the technology. Two days is a long time to go without access to critical files and documents, and cloud users may want to have an on-site alternative ready to go when the next outage occurs. Physical data archiving solutions can be extremely beneficial, allowing individuals to backup their most vital information in the event of a data loss incident. By supplementing cloud-based options with these tools, both business users and consumers can rest easy knowing their most important files will be available at a moment’s notice.

Some of the most reliable data archiving solutions on the market today operate on Blu-ray discs. This media format offers a durability that cannot be matched by many other available archiving tools. In addition, due to the cost-effectiveness of Blu-ray technology, users can scale their efforts up or down, depending on their individual needs. If a person wishes to backup a large volume of documents he or she can simply insert another disc once one has reached capacity and continue the archiving process. The combination of durability, scalability and cost-effectiveness makes Blu-ray a leading format for data archiving tools.