This week I came across this interesting counterpoint in the New York Times to the idea that all data should now live “in the cloud” forever, without a physical address.  It’s a kind of a follow up to this article I posted a while back about the physical aspects of the cloud we may not notice as we ride the train or pass through industrial hubs.

“No one can look at all their data anymore; they need algorithms just to decide what to look at”

With the exponential growth of data this start up sells on-site storage devices, which can store 16 petabytes of data – five times conventional storage products now available.  I can imagine tons of nonprofit uses from natural resources to health and human services to other advocacy work where clients, materials, and big data need to be tracked and studied.

“Health care, manufacturing and natural resources companies can all justify owning this much storage. In 10 years, a big sanitation company with sensors on its Dumpsters to manage pickups could have tens of petabytes.”  – NYTimes.com https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/15/technology/as-a-data-deluge-grows-companies-rethink-storage.html

Of course, the need for security remains a priority, given the recent hospital ransomware cases in the news.