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Storage units have come a long way, and the methods we use for storing our images have evolved greatly over the past few decades. This is why we chose to dedicate one DIYP quiz to storage space!
Some of you remember how we stored our early digital images before gigantic external hard drives and cloud services. But let’s see if you can remember how much data all these old storage units could hold. And if you share your results with us – we may even be able to guess roughly how old you are.
200TB SSDs are currently in development according to Nimbus Data CEO Thomas Isakovich, who told TechRadar that they’re actively working on a 200TB SSD to beat the world’s current largest capacity SSD record holder… themselves. Nimbus Data set the record in March 2018 with a massive 100TB ExaDrive Solid State Drive. At the time of that drive’s announcement, there was no word on price, but it later transpired to be $40,000.
Isakovich told TechRadar in an email exchange that they’re working on its successor to offer “even more capacity, performance and energy-efficiency than the ground-breaking 100TB, and expect to deliver this next-generation SSD in 2022”. I bet this one’ll cost a lot more than $40K because it’s not like Nimbus Data really has any competition at this level right now.
When last we met, I pointed out the perils of using Apple’s iCloud Photos for photo backup for one simple reason: if you delete an image off your iPhone, Apple will in turn also delete it from iCloud*.
This time I’d like to go over the best alternative photo backup options for you in more detail, because like it or not, in today’s world, just like paying for food, shelter and taxes, if you snap photos on your smartphone or camera, you will be paying for online storage. And paying more in the coming years as well, as you snap more images.
There’s no such thing as free backup anymore.
The G-Technology Shuttle XL EV is a beast of a RAID array and has the storage and speed to deal with just about anything you can throw at it. Or so they say.
As anyone who has read any of my articles before, you would know that as a video producer, I need lots and lots of fast storage. And if you haven’t read any of my stuff before, well, just assume that as a video producer, I need lots and lots of fast storage. ;)
GoPro Plus subscription service offers additional benefits to its users. Starting from 30 January 2019, all subscribers will have unlimited cloud storage space for videos and photos, instead of the 35-hour limit they had so far.
The storage space race never seems to end. With ever-increasing storage demands on both consumers and storage facilities, it’s not surprising. We’re creating more digital content than ever before. Whether it’s text, photos or videos. Now, Nimbus Data have beaten out Seagate’s 60TB proof-of-concept SSD and completely annihilated Samsung’s recent 30TB SSD announcement.
Aimed more at data centres than home users, Nimbus Data has announced the ExaDrive, which holds a ridiculous 100TB of data. Unlike the 2.5″ Samsung, the ExaDrive comes in a 3.5″ SATA form factor to make it fit better with server and rack size standards. The company says that the ExaDrive DC100 is “optimized for capacity and efficiency”.
If you are a creative going both video and photos and amassing a huge amount of data you may have considered both a dedicated storage and maybe a cloud service.
Personally, I use a Synology 5 bay NAS as a second storage and Backblaze B2 as my cloud provider. The tip here is relevant for all providers of cloud storage though.
When I hooked up to B2, I already had about 2 Terabytes of data that I wanted to back up. Day to day operations should not be an issue, but getting that initial chunk of data up was something that needed consideration. I needed to get that data up there fast.
I think I’m going to stop listening to anybody who says that hard drives are dead and SSD is the only future of storage. Don’t get me wrong, I love SSDs. They’re fantastic for when you need really rapid access to data. They’re great as a system drive for your operating system and software.
When it comes to pure storage, though, they still can’t really hold a candle to hard drives for capacity. Well, not unless you want to spend an absolute fortune. Western Digital have just announced a new “breakthrough” technology in hard drive storage. Microwave Assisted Magnetic Recording. They say that it will allow them to create hard drives 40TB and larger.
It’s insane to think that hard drive space has gone from around $500,000 to as low as $0.03 per gigabyte in the last 36 years. It has, though. But that drop in price is slowing down. It has to. Even as recently as 8 years ago, drives were hitting under $0.10 per GB.
Backblaze recently had a look into just how hard drive prices have changed over the years, and they turned up something quite fascinating. One would expect that the larger the drive, the lower the per gigabyte cost. But it turns out that’s not quite happening in the real world.
There’s a sale going on at BestBuy at the moment on WD easystore 8TB External USB 3.0 hard drives. A massive discount which drops the price from $299.99 to $159.99. “What’s the big deal, though?” I hear you ask. “They’re just external USB drives”. Well, yes, but those USB boxes contain Western Digital RED (NAS) SATA drives which normally also cost $299.
It’s easy to open up the cases and pull out the bare drives to use internally. And if getting 8TB storage drives at half price wasn’t enough, the drives contained within these enclosures have double the regular cache. 256MB vs 128MB. With four of these, in a USB3 RAID enclosure, you’ve got 24TB RAID 5 for under $800.
Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.
Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe
Dave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.
John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.
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