Suitable Storage Devices Flashcards

All 6 cards in this deck

Name the six characteristics used to compare storage devices and media.

Capacity, speed, portability, durability, reliability and cost.

Give one advantage and one disadvantage of a solid state drive compared with a magnetic hard disk drive.

Advantage: faster access with no moving parts, so more durable and lower power. Disadvantage: higher cost per gigabyte.

Why is flash (solid state) memory suitable for tablets, smartphones and digital cameras?

It is small and light, has no moving parts so is robust, uses little power and is fast to read from and write to.

Which type of storage is most suitable for backing up very large amounts of data as cheaply as possible?

Magnetic storage (hard disk drive or magnetic tape) — large capacity at a low cost per gigabyte.

Give two drawbacks of storing data in the cloud rather than locally.

You need internet access (speed depends on the connection), and you have no control over security, relying on the provider; there may also be an ongoing subscription cost.

Give two advantages of storing data remotely (in the cloud) rather than locally.

Data can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection and shared easily; no need to buy and maintain your own storage hardware.