The evolution of data storage and how it’s backed up.

Since the arrival of the first hard drive in 1950, the way we store data and the amount of data we can store has gotten bigger, while the physical size has gradually gotten smaller. Back in 1950 a hard drive that could hold 5MB was the size of a wardrobe.

In 1990 we began to see the arrival of 40MB to 100MB hard drives, with an increased storage size came a more compact hard drive, sizing down from the size of furniture to a house brick.

In 2019 we reached a point where you could have 15TB in a hard drive, with the size also being even smaller than before.

More about the progression of hard drives can be read here. https://www.pingdom.com/blog/amazing-facts-and-figures-about-the-evolution-of-hard-disk-drives/

Along with the progression of hard drives came other forms of storage such as the Solid-State Drive, which, while serving a similar purpose, is vastly different in how it stores data, also yielding a better performance than a standard hard drive. However, it wouldn’t be until 2020 that SSDs would become competition to HDDs as a choice of preference.

We wouldn’t see commercial offerings of online storage until 2006, where Amazon started offering Amazon Web Services (AWS). This allowed Web, Image, and Storage hosting, which is now a standard in today’s online world.

As data storage has progressed throughout the years, the way in which we protect and back up our data has had to progress along with it.

The magnitude of data we go through in just a day is astronomical, and that data must go somewhere, which is why the progression of data storage is essential. Even more essential is ensuring that data is preserved. Hard drives aren’t immune to failure, things can go wrong, whether that be a hard drive error or a user error.

The solutions for backing up your systems has gradually increased, with Backup Systems offering numerous ways in which you can securely backup your data. By visiting our managed services, you can explore a number of solutions to ensuring you have a secure and reliable backup. Get in contact today to book a demo!

Photo by Daniel Lawrence and Brett Sayles