The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we experience life, our attitudes, behaviours, and our work. This is largely due to the accelerated adoption of technology and the way we consume and store data. Whether it is education, work, or entertainment, technology is redefining our personal, professional, economic, and social life more than ever. And the trend is likely to continue as a new normal even after the pandemic has passed. The accelerated online growth and dependence on technology has led to a steep growth in data demand. It is estimated that over 463 exabytes of data will be generated every day by 2025 globally. This is equivalent of 212,765,957 DVDs per day!
In the midst of this data deluge, storage mechanisms have become a critical need to not just prevent data loss, but also to boost the performance of our extant devices. Be it taking virtual classes, working from home, or playing PC games, greater storage capacities and faster transfer speeds have become an imperative in our digital life. Let’s take a closer look at each of these spheres.
In India, over 320 million students have been locked out of the classrooms due to COVID-19-induced school closures. With schools shifting gears to switch to remote learning, there has been an uptick in the usage of video conferencing platforms and online learning management systems. As more and more students are accessing video led study material, productivity software and applications, vast quantities of personal data are being generated. This includes learning assignments, critical documents, projects and presentations, each of which needs to be safely stored and backed up to safeguard against the possibility of a system crash, malware, tech glitches and so on.
Therefore, investing in a high-quality storage device that offers efficiency, speed and flexibility of usage is critical in facilitating seamless virtual learning. Portable storage devices, such as HDDs and SSDs, present a reliable storage solution to those seeking a large volume of storage space and long-term accessibility. This makes sorting, organizing and backing up videos, presentations, documents and assignments easy and hassle-free. In fact, with a majority of students using their smartphone to attend virtual classes, storing an ever-increasing number of files and documents locally can often be a problem. Here, dual drives can be employed to seamlessly transfer content from the smartphone to various devices, such as tablets, PCs, and even smart TVs. This further prevents the need to be restricted to a wired data solution and shifts the focus to a plug-and-play environment where students can continue to learn anywhere, anytime.
The Gartner CFO Survey reveals that 74% of employers are willing to move part of their previously on-site workforce to permanently remote positions in the post-pandemic scenario. Once regarded as a privilege in many organizations, remote working, today, has become indispensable for business continuity. As a result, the Work from Home (WFH) guidelines across organizations have catalysed the need for setting up a mini-office at home. However, it is vital to not just have technology tools in place for communication, productivity and data security, but also for safe, reliable storage to ensure optimum efficiency in a remote environment.
Take for instance situations wherein people may not have access to their office’s shared drives and network folders. This can often lead them to store critical data on their PC hard drives, thereby exposing themselves to the risk of data loss owing to system failure, viruses, trojans and so on. A hybrid approach towards storing data on internal drives and also on portable storage devices can help in storing large volumes of data and keeping the content secure. Employing smart data storage solutions not just offers high-capacity storage, but also provides additional features, such as auto-backup and encryption for data security – both of which are of critical importance in a WFH situation.
Entertainment from the comfort of home
With people spending more time indoors owing to the pandemic, there has been an increase in the sales of gaming laptops, as attested by leading PC vendors in India. In fact, according to the 2020 FICCI-EY report titled The Era of Consumer A.R.T, the number of online gamers in India grew by 31% in 2019 to 365 million and is expected to reach 440 million by 2022.
The new-age gamer’s appetite has increased for graphically demanding games played online in a multiplayer environment, which calls for high-performance PC gaming rigs with the right configuration. Gamers often focus on the computing power of a gaming PC but overlook a critical aspect: storage. Low storage and slow HDDs are prime factors leading to poor system performance and frequent crashes. While an HDD offers the adequate capacity to store a large number of game titles and enough computing power to support high-quality graphics, NVMe SSDs go a step further in improving game load times. Since SSDs do not have spinning parts, they help reduce the load times by a significant margin.
Further, with popular games reaching up to 100GB of file size, gamers are often left in a dilemma to decide which older game titles they should delete to make way for newer games. The solution lies in going hybrid – using internal storage for newer games and storing the older titles on a portable SSD that’s optimised gaming and fast transfers.
Where are we headed?
Notwithstanding the challenges in the prevailing situation, technology has disrupted lives and opened new avenues for people. Even as people continue to practice physical distancing across the world, connected technology is bridging the social distance and ensuring business continuity. However, a crucial part of the data infrastructure bolstering this shift in the technology landscape is data storage, which has emerged as a defining factor for ensuring productivity at work and play. As storage technology evolves, it will only continue to improve user experience by facilitating better data management and, hence, a better quality of life.
The author is Director of Marketing, India, Western Digital.