Consumers have become more reliant on personal data for everything from health records, financial documents, home video and photos, social media videos and more.
With a massive 63% of respondents to a global Researchscape study having lost data to device failure, accidental deletion or cyberattacks, many are realizing the importance of backups.
Announcing the study results, Western Digital points out that 87% of respondents cite that they backup their data automatically or manually. The top reasons for backing up personal data are fear of losing important files (83%), to free up space on their device (67%) and to protect against cyber threats (42%). Nineteen percent do it because they were told to.
“It’s fantastic to see more people recognizing the importance of protecting their data,” says Nitin Kachhwaha, director of product management at Western Digital.
For those respondents who do not backup their personal data, 36% still think they don’t need to backup their data, 30% don’t have enough storage space, 29% think it takes too much time, and 23% don’t know how. 63% of respondents agree that they would backup data more frequently if it was automatic and effortless.
Western Digital recommends the dependable backup practice of following the 3-2-1 backup strategy, where consumers should have three copies of data, stored on two different types of media with one copy stored offsite, like in the cloud.
With free cloud storage limits quickly maxing out, many consumers are turning to a hybrid approach to protect their data.
In the survey, 78% of respondents reported that they rely on free cloud storage, 60% have run out of space in the past six months, and 56% have had to upgrade to paid plans. Additionally, 35% find cloud storage increasingly expensive. This is driving more people to adopt a combination of both cloud and local external storage to ensure data protection and cost efficiency.
External HDD storage, offering up to 26TB in a single drive, provides a cost-effective solution to complement the cloud, and many consumers are already embracing this approach — 45% use an external HDD, while 19% rely on network-attached storage (NAS). By diversifying storage methods, users can maintain reliable backups while managing growing cloud costs.