A2 Peripheral devices and media GapFill

The amount of data that we are generate is rising  exponentiallyslowlyto a limited degreereasonably quickly. This data includes the amount of data generated by businesses, our online digital footprints, the amount of content uploaded to streaming platforms, and even the amount of data that we store on our own devices.

Over time, the way that we store data has changed, in part because of the growth of data. Large data centres called  fieldsserver farmscommandsplantations are taking up ever more land, and consuming vast amounts of energy to run and cool. These centres store your files called  cloudsleetfogweather storage, host the streaming services and websites that we all use, and businesses store their important files and offsite backups on them. These servers still largely use mechanical (spinning) hard drives because they are cheap and have a  low data yieldlarge install baselarge capacityhigh failure rates. To further protect the data on the servers, multiple copies are spread across several drives so that if one drive fails, the data is still accessible. This is called  RAIDROARROADRAW. The security around the servers is very tight – restricting physical and electronic access where possible.

We are also creating a type of data called  smallobsoletenewbig data. For example, a supermarket or big online retailer stores data about its millions of customers, transactions and possibly even products. This data needs complex analysis because of its immense size.

But we don’t just store data on servers. We used to buy software on physical media, mostly  USB flash drivestapesvinylCDs and DVDs. We also used to backup our data on these discs, but they were slow and bulky and could get scratched easily. Most devices no longer have an optical drive, so we now buy software  on SD cardsonlineon tapeinstore and just download the installer when we need it.

Our hard drives are also changing. Most modern devices use a type of storage called  CF2flashNANDgates, which is found in solid state drives (SSDs). They don’t have  core memoryoldnon-volatilemoving parts so they don’t wear out that way – but the memory can only be read to a limited number of times. The drives have software what optimised the way that data is written to the cells to stop them from being overused. While the capacity of SSDs has increased and the price has decreased, there may be a mechanical drive installed for data – but because of the increased access speed, the  dataoperating systemleast accessed filesinfrequently accessed files will be stored on the SSD.

We also find flash memory in USB thumb drives and SD cards. Flash drives are very useful at  transferring dataincreasing RAMlosing dataencrypting data, for example between computers, but they can get easily lost and are a data security risk if they are not encrypted, and can be a vector for  bloatwarefreewaremalwaresoftware to infect a system. As a result, many companies ban the use of flash drives, or disable access to them. Even smaller are SD and MicroSD cards, which are used in  switchescamerasdesktopsrouters, mobile phones and small computers such as the Raspberry Pi.

If you’ve seen any old films about computers, they always showed the spinning reels of magnetic tape held in a vacuum column. In fact, we still widely use tape today for  mobile phone storageserver storagelaptop storagebackups because it was cheaper than hard disk storage. The tape is now spooled inside a small plastic box rather than on open reels. Accessing files is fairly slow because there is often many metres of tape to wind through in order to reach the files.