Consumers are increasingly turning to cloud-based storage systems to save personal contents including photos, videos, and music files, according to findings by Gartner, a technology research company.
The research firm said the contents, which are user-generated, increase each day given the use of tablets and smartphones that come with a range of applications.
According to Gartner, shipment of tablets and mobile devices is on the increase leading to rise in user-generated content.
Personal storage is however not an option to the users as they turn steadily to cloud storage services, the research firm notes.
Gartner reports that by 2016 most consumers will start using the cloud to store a third of their digital content. The report also claims that by 2016, close to 36 percent of consumer content will be stored in the cloud compared to just 7 percent in 2011.
“Consumers have long stored their content on PCs, but in this post-PC era where a majority of consumers are using multiple connected devices fitted with cameras and recorders, there is a colossal increase in user-generated content that requires huge storage,” Shalini Verma, principal research analyst at Gartner, commented.
Verma adds that the emergence of firms offering cloud storage services is fast solving the problems of storage. The firms including Google Drive, Dropbox, Microsoft SkyDrive and Apple iCloud offer basic cloud storage packages free or at a small fee depending on cloud storage size required.
Africa has also not been left behind. Kenya in particular has firms offering both personal and public clouds. Safaricom, Kenya’s leading mobile operator offers cloud services for high-end business and corporate clients.
Other firms such as Ionacloud, reports to be servicing clients in more than 52 countries across the world while File It Africa is as well enabling online storage of personal, SME’s and corporate content possible.
In 2011, global consumer generated content stored on personal hardware devices and in the cloud totalled to 329 exabytes. Gartner however expects it to amount to 4.1 zettabytes by 2016. Individual household storage will grow from 464 gigabytes in 2011 to 3.3 terabytes in 2016 increasing uptake of cloud storage services.
Gartner says it also expects cloud storage services to grow especially in regions where online storage and sync services are already in use – like in North America, Western Europe, Asia Pacific region, Japan and South Korea.
“As uptake of the personal cloud grows, online storage and sync companies need to plan for the future as cloud storage will get so commonplace. There will be more users storing own-generated content directly in the cloud through the direct to cloud model,” Verma said.
