Affordable Storage: Solutions for the Present and Future

As a designer who is used to using up computer storage space quickly, I was happy to stumble upon a unique, inexpensive storage solution recently. I'm speaking of the Thermaltake BlacX USB Hard Drive Dock which enables you to use SATA hard drives as if they were USB cards or plug and play enclosed hard drives. Why is this so great? Well for one thing, the price is unbeatable. With a buy price of $40.00, you really cannot find a better storage solution. Currently 500GB SATA hard drives run roughly $90-100. That means that, with the Hard Drive Dock, you can purchase 1 terabyte of space for just under $200. Wow- that's phenomenal!

From a functional standpoint its a great option for the designer looking to back up or create duplicates of his/her own work. Rather than having to purchase expensive enclosed hard drives where you are paying extra for the enclosure, housing, and power source, you can simply use 'raw' drives that would normally have to be installed inside your computer. Furthermore, you don't have to shut down your computer to remove the drives like you normally would. Just plug the drive in, do your copying, and then store the data safely.

Designers working in large formats will understand the benefit of running a system like this. Those many-layered PSD files start to really crank up the size when you are working on a high-resolution banner or display project. This system is probably even more beneficial to video editors. Given the current industry shift towards High Definition, demand for cheap storage space is at an all-time high. If you are running your own freelance company and do not have the resources or money available to purchase some of the more expensive data backup solutions, this is a fantastic way to start. Don't get me wrong, this is no alternative to a redundant array; this is no RAID setup. However, if you need to store footage or files quickly, cheaply, and efficiently, this is definitely worth looking into.

But what about the future?

To be honest, I believe the above method is pretty much the cheapest way to store data currently and I don't expect that to change for at least 4-5 more years (just my own opinion). However, Blu-Ray disc backup will inevitably replace this method if technology prices drop significantly. For now though, its just not worth using Blu-Ray for your backup needs.

A Blu-Ray burner will run you anywhere from $350-600 and write speeds are still fairly poor in proportion to the disc quality. In addition to this, the media is still incredibly expensive! At the very best you are looking at an individual disc cost of $30-50 for 1 (one!) dual-layer disc that holds 50GB. If you have a Blu-Ray player for your HDTV at home, you know how expensive those discs are to buy. This is why my wife and I use my XBOX 360 to 'rent' HD movies rather than investing in a Blu-Ray player and spending money on these overpriced discs (as an aside: You can also rent HD movies for relatively cheap using an iTunes enabled computer that is hooked up to your HDTV or by using Apple's Mac TV device.).

No thanks... I'll glady wait for this technology price point to drop- it's inevitable (for proof of this, look at DVD trends and how that technology price point dropped tremendously as it became more and more standardized). While it's really not a viable technology for anything outside of HD Movies right now, I do think this is the way of the future provided the cost falls significantly.