pros and cons of cloud storage

Cloud
There are several impacts the cloud computing will bring about for a number of different stakeholders, including consumers and businesses. For the most part, these impacts should be positive, but there are definitely some reasons for caution as well.
Cloud computing reflects the concept that information is stored over the Internet, rather than on your hardware (Griffith, 2016). It is still stored in hardware, of course, that hardware being owned by the cloud storage operator. There are some advantages and disadvantages associated with this storage model, and some that are basically a double-edged sword.
First, cloud has the advantage of ensuring that your data is protected. In local storage, anything that is stored locally is at risk if the hardware on which it is stored is damaged or destroyed. If something is on your computer, and your computer crashes, that something is lost. You can back up this data, which will alleviate this issue to some extent, but cloud storage is not only offsite, but usually comes with redundancy in multiple data centers, meaning that your data will never be destroyed, no matter if your entire home or office is. You simply turn on a computer elsewhere, log in, and gain access to your data as if nothing happened.
Second, cloud storage is cheap. Even if local storage prices have come down, cloud storage providers typically have economies of scale , and this scale allows them to offer cloud storage to you , at a profit, for a price less than what the equivalent local storage would cost. For both consumers and businesses, this is generally favorable, even though the monthly fees present some risk. If you are paying for your cloud storage on a monthly basis, based on how much is stored, you do run the risk of becoming dependent on the cloud storage provider. They will control your access to your data, and you will essentially be a price-taker, unless you build in the ability to retrieve your data and migrate it to another cloud storage provider.
Going along with this is another risk to business and consumers alike, in that cloud storage is dominated by Amazon and Google. Cloud storage is essentially a commodity, which means that price is the most important means on which competitors compete, and these two giants can undercut just about anything. They alone will control a lot of the world's information, the more that goes into the cloud, and that presents particular risks for things like privacy, security and even national security.
Cloud computing is generally secure. The companies that dominate the space invest incredible amounts of money to secure their cloud businesses, knowing that breaches are expensive and would undermine this lucrative trade. So in general, cloud systems are more secure, not less as some believe, than local storage. They are still vulnerable to things like phishing but so is any local storage that is password based.
Some people wary of the cloud focus on the fact that with local storage, you alone control your data. While breaches are uncommon in cloud, they can happen. Moreover, one never really knows who has access to the data. Many companies based in Europe, for example, simply will not put their data into a cloud provider based in the United States. The servers must be in the EU, and away from the ability of American intelligence to access. There is a level of distrust inherent in putting all of one's critical data into the hands of someone else – and to a degree this distrust is warranted.
Overall, however, cloud is lowering the cost of storage. It is also allowing for the growth of SaaS businesses, because cloud allows them to scale and iterate much more quickly than traditional software businesses can. By allowing businesses to move more quickly, innovation is encouraged, and that spurs economic growth. Firms have to be prepared to work in a faster-paced environment, because with cloud that is basically what they will get.
All told, there are certainly some risks associated with the cloud, but there are also a lot of advantages. Businesses in particular are leveraging those advantages, but consumers will start to see those advantages as well over time, as more applications like Google Docs, Office 365 and others become normalized for consumer use.


References

Griffith, E. (2016) What is cloud computing? PC World Retrieved October 15, 2017 from https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2372163,00.asp