Cloud Based Storage: Its Advantages and Disadvantages

This report provides an overview of cloud based storage, its advantages and disadvantages. It includes a brief history, methodology, research details, and findings. The advantages include usability, cost effectiveness, disaster recovery, and accessibility. The disadvantages include security, bandwidth, software, and moving documents. Twelve articles are referenced to support the report.

Running head: CLOUD BASED STORAGE
Cloud Based Storage: Its Advantages and Disadvantages
Name of the Student
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Abstract
The main aim of this report is to understand the concept of cloud based storage. The cloud
based storage comprises of various advantages and disadvantages. Twelve articles are
presented in the report for describing the topic of “Cloud Based Storage and its Advantages
and Disadvantages”. The report has properly demonstrated the methodology and the research
details. Moreover, the point of views from several authors is also given here. The findings of
the report are also provided here. The final part of the report has provided a clear conclusion
with all the evaluations derived from the report.

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction............................................................................................................................3
2. Background............................................................................................................................3
3. Methodology and Research Details.......................................................................................3
4. Issues, Various Points of View..............................................................................................3
5. Advantages.............................................................................................................................4
6. Disadvantages........................................................................................................................5
7. Findings..................................................................................................................................5
8. Conclusion..............................................................................................................................5
9. References..............................................................................................................................7

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1. Introduction
Cloud-based storage can be defined as the specific model of storing data where the
digital data gets stored. The hosting company is responsible for managing and controlling this
cloud based storage (Laan 2017). Each and every provider of the cloud based storage helps to
maintain the accessibility and availability of the data. The physical environment is extremely
protected with this cloud storage. These types of storage providers manage the data on
storage servers. Virtualization techniques are responsible for building all the storage servers
of cloud storage.
The following report demonstrates a brief overview on the concept of cloud based
storages. The report provides the background of the topic by describing the history of the
topic. The methodology and the research details are also described here. The advantages and
disadvantages of cloud based storage are also given here. A conclusion will be drawn on the
findings.
2. Background
In the year 1960, Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider invented cloud computing by while
working with ARPANET. He wanted a connection between data and people from anywhere
and at any time. In the year 1983, CompuServe offered all of its users with a smaller disk
space for storing all types of files that are to be uploaded (Lee 2014). In the year 1994, the
first storage was launched and it was completely web based. In the year 2006, Amazon Web
Services or AWS first invented the cloud storage, namely AWS S3. It was instantly
recognized by everyone worldwide. The best examples of cloud based storages in today’s
world are Google Drive, iCloud, Google Docs, XDrive and many more.
Cloud based storage comprises of various significant advantages and disadvantages
(Null and Labor 2014). These advantages or benefits of cloud storage has made the storage
extremely popular and accepted by all. However, there are some of the major disadvantages
as well. These disadvantages can be dangerous for any enterprise or company.
3. Methodology and Research Details
Methodology is the theoretical or systematic analysis of any method that is used to
execute a specific action or activity. This report is done with the help of qualitative research
methodology. Several journal papers, books, conference papers and various peer reviewed
articles were reviewed while making the report. Amongst them, twelve articles were selected
and the report is made on them. These articles are being used to define the topic of cloud
storage and its advantages and disadvantages.
4. Issues, Various Points of View
According to Stefanov and Shi 2013, cloud storage is extremely necessary and
secured to give high performance in data storage. It helps to maintain the security and privacy
of the data and thus can be termed as secured. As per Lee 2014, cloud networking is the most
important architecture for the cloud based networks.

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Rountree and Castrillo 2013 have discussed about the various advantages and
disadvantages of cloud based storage in their paper. They have mentioned about the
importance of cloud storage for any storing any data.
As per Laan 2017, the infrastructure architecture is vital and thus should be
maintained properly. The cloud architecture includes IaaS, PaaS and SaaS. Each and every
cloud architecture has its own advantages and disadvantages.
5. Advantages
Cloud based storage is one of the most important and significant storages of data that
is utilized by the cloud providers to properly maintain, control, manage and backing up of
data (Kurose and Ross 2016). This particular service allows all of its users in storing as well
as utilizing the files online, so that these data could be easily accessed from any part of the
world with the help of the Internet. It has been observed that over 800 decision makers in
business have been benefitted from cloud storage and they have gained competitive
advantages through this. The most significant advantages of this cloud based storage are as
follows:
i) Usability: The very first benefit of any specific cloud storage is its usability. This
type of service can be easily utilized and accessed from anywhere and on any operating
system. This particular feature makes the cloud based storage extremely popular and accepted
by all. However, this usability of the cloud storage is restricted to authenticated users only ad
thus it is extremely safe and secured.
ii) Cost Effectiveness: This is the second most important advantage of cloud based
storage. There are several cloud based storages available in the market and most of them are
extremely cheaper in comparison to other data storages. The cost effectiveness of the cloud
based storages helps them to gain popularity (Rountree and Castrillo 2013). Moreover, all the
organizations that are utilizing the cloud storage get benefit from it as it helps in the reduction
of annual operation costs and this cost around 3 percent gigabytes in storing the entire
internally. The users would be able to get the additional cost savings since it does not require
any type of internal power for the purpose of storing the information remotely.
iii) Disaster Recovery: The third important advantage of the cloud storage is the
disaster recovery. The organizations or the companies that do not have the emergency back
up plans; cloud storage would be the best answer to all of them. The cloud storage is
responsible for all types of emergency back ups in case of any data breaching or data lost.
These cloud storages act as secondary copy of all kinds of important files that has the highest
tendency to be breached or hacked by the hackers or intruders (White 2015). Cloud storage
helps these organizations by storing the confidential files in a specific remote location that
could only be accessed by the Internet. The hackers do not get any hold of this location and
thus the data is extremely safe and secured. Moreover, due to the remote location, and access
from only the Internet, the disaster is very less and even if disaster occurs, it can be easily
recovered without any complexities.
iv) Accessibility: The fourth important advantage of any particular cloud storage is its
accessibility. The files that are being stored within the cloud based storage can be easily
accessible from any part of the cloud. Moreover, this hassle free accessibility has helped the
cloud storage to become extremely popular and acceptable by all its users (Stallings and Case

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2013). Any particular user, who are accessing through the Internet, can access the data that
has been stored in the cloud storage.
These above mentioned advantages or benefits help the cloud based storage to be
excessively advantageous and important for the users of cloud computing.
6. Disadvantages
Although, cloud based storage comprises of various important advantages, there are
some of the major disadvantages embedded within the system as well. The most significant
disadvantages or demerits of any cloud based storage are as follows:
i) Security: This is the most significant disadvantage of cloud storage. In spite of
providing various advantages of data storage, the security of this particular storage is
threatening (Laan 2013). It has a disaster recovery embedded within it, however, the security
system is not at all up graded and thus there is always a high chance of data losses in any
cloud storage. Various security measures are adopted for mitigating the security risks or
threats but still the threats in the data recovery is not removed completely.
ii) Moving of Documents: Two types of operations are used in cloud storage while
moving any document from one location to another. The two operations are the dragging and
dropping of files. If not done carefully, the movement of data can be permanent and thus the
data would be stored win the cloud storage forever (Pfleeger and Pfleeger 2015). There
should be a second copy of data while it is being stored within the storage.
iii) Bandwidth: The third disadvantage of the cloud storage is that various such
services have particular allowance of bandwidth. If any user crosses that allowance,
additional charges are to be incurred. The companies often give a second thought while using
any cloud storage.
iv) Software: The fourth disadvantage of cloud storage is that all the services and
software are to be downloaded in each and every device (Santana 2013).
7. Findings
From the above report, it has been found that cloud based storage is very important
and significant storage of any data through the Internet. The providers of cloud computing
help the users to store their data effectively and efficiently. It is an online storage that
comprises of several significant advantages like usability, cost effectiveness, accessibility and
disaster recovery (Burd 2016). However, few disadvantages are also present within the
storage like the bandwidth is restricted, the requirement of down loading software, the lack of
security and the problem in moving any documents. The journal papers and articles have
helped to understand the entire concept perfectly.
8. Conclusion
Therefore, form the above discussion it can be concluded that cloud computing is the
practice of transferring any data or confidential information through the Internet. It is a
paradigm of information technology, which helps to enable the ubiquitous access to all types

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of shared pool of system resources. These could be rapidly provisioned by lesser management
effort on the Internet. Cloud storage is the storage of cloud computing that is utilized for
storing data or any confidential information with extreme security and safety. There are
several kinds of cloud based storages available in the market. The above report has outlined a
brief discussion on the cloud storage and various advantages and disadvantages. This report
has provided the proper analysis of the methodology, research details and issues of cloud
storage. Furthermore, the findings are also mentioned in the report.

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9. References
Burd, S., 2016. Systems architecture. 7th edn, Course Technology, Boston, MA.
Kurose, J.F., and Ross, K.W., 2016. Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach.7th edn,
Addison Wesley, New Jersey.
Laan, S., 2013. IT Infrastructure Architecture-Infrastructure Building Blocks and Concepts
Second Edition. Lulu. press.
Laan, S., 2017. IT Infrastructure Architecture-Infrastructure Building Blocks and Concepts
Third Edition. Lulu. com.
Lee, G., 2014. Cloud networking: understanding cloud-based data center networks. Morgan
Kaufmann.
Null, L., and Labor, J., 2014. The essentials of computer organization and architecture. 4th
edn, Jones & Bartlett Publishers, Sudbury, MA.
Pfleeger, C., and Pfleeger, S., 2015. Security in Computing. 5th edn, Prentice Hall, New
Jersey.
Rountree, D. and Castrillo, I., 2013. The basics of cloud computing: Understanding the
fundamentals of cloud computing in theory and practice. Newnes.
Santana, G.A., 2013. Data center virtualization fundamentals: understanding techniques and
designs for highly efficient data centers with Cisco Nexus, UCS, MDS, and beyond. Cisco
Press.
Stallings, W., and Case, T., 2013. Business data communications: Infrastructure, networking
and security, 7th edn, Pearson, Boston.
Stefanov, E. and Shi, E., 2013, May. Oblivistore: High performance oblivious cloud storage.
In Security and Privacy (SP), 2013 IEEE Symposium on (pp. 253-267). IEEE.
White, C., 2015. Data communications and computer networks: a business user's approach.
Cengage Learning.