Small is beautiful

Data portability is the buzz. Well, it was just a couple of years ago that
only the most typical of gadget-freaks would be seen sporting these miniature
storage beauties. Today, they have truly come into their own–a fan following
that comprises everyone from corporate honchos and professionals on the move to
die-hard tech geeks, and even home user. And, the benefits they wreak are
phenomenal. Though small, these devices pack in volumes of data, from a few
megabytes to several gigabytes.

There are external hard disks the size of a small brick available from
companies like Iomega, Maxtor and Samsung, which are a godsend for applications
like video file transfers and system backups. While these personal hard drives
continue to grow in capacity, they keep shrinking in form factor–there are
pocket-sized hard drives available today that can hold 100GB of data. A typical
optical disc can hold anything from 650MB to several gigabytes in case of DVDs.

Although the media is cheap, it is not rugged and prone to scratches or
break-ups. Even external USB-based drives usually require drive installation on
each host that intends to use it. But all said, an optical disc is best used for
data archival and will never be a hot contender for a simple data transfer.

Of all the personal storage products, nothing comes close to USB flash drives
when it comes to convergence of features–ease of use, ruggedness and
compactness are a few–that could pretty well make it the perfect personal
portable storage media. Variously called as pen drives, pocket drives and thumb
drives; they are usually the size of a thin cigarette lighter and weigh even
lesser!

For people who need to conveniently move data between computers–from video
and audio files to bulky presentations and even a full backup, it’s time to
look at these small drives. Dealers of Nehru Place in New Delhi say that they
are a big hit with laptop users, with many of them selling between 500-600 units
a month. While the corporate world is still cautiously watching the trend and
still undecided whether or not to issue these devices to employees, the action
is happening big on personal level. Also, sources in Nehru Place claim that
buyers from SOHO segments are driving sales in majority.

A related technology is secure digital (SD) cards, which is even smaller
(post-stamp size) and finds use as internal storage in devices like digital
cameras, PDAs and cellular phones. SD cards offer comparable capaci-ties, but
they are a bit expensive and require a cardreader device for use with a
computer.

Little Masters

Sony, Samsung, Iomega and Umax are some of the names that have USB flash
drives in market. Some of their models feature built-in security features, which
go as far as putting fingerprinting technology on the petit drive. Others come
with software that restricts access to a section of data on the drive.

However, the bulk of the action in USB flash drive market has
been stolen by obscure Chinese, Taiwanese and Korean manufacturers, which have
flooded the market with cheap devices. Still their drives compete well with
those from branded players In terms of quality and ruggedness–with security as
perhaps the only missing option.

In terms of market size, the USB flash drive market is
continuing to swell with some analysts expecting 40 to 50 million USB flash
devices selling worldwide in this year alone. The capacity continues to march
along sales growth–a 4GB flash drive is expected to hit market by the end of
the year.

Fan Club

The convenience that these portable devices offer makes them an unbeatable
proposition for most laptop users. Take USB flash drive for example–it
invariably finds most favors with top management and sales staff who can finally
leave their laptops behind, should they need to, and travel with their data
tucked firmly in their pocket. A typical scenario could be a trip to other town
when you need to make a presentation–why carry a three kilo laptop with you
when you can just carry a few necessary files and make use of infrastructure
available at the event.

Away from top management, these devices are becoming
increasingly accessible to even a general user–falling prices of hardware
encourage many companies to give them away for sales promotions so much so that
the next sales pitch you receive might come stored in a neat 128 MB USB flash
drive.

Already some large enterprises have already recognizing the
trend and making use of it. LG Electronics has already issued USB flash drives.
"But we have restricted this to a strictly ‘need to have’ basis,"
says Arindam Bose, head–IT, adding that they are given only to "senior
sales, marketing and accounting personnel who have a need to travel
extensively."

However, there are some concerns or security hazards posed by
these devices. Both the size and the ease-of-use the flash drives offer makes
them a very dangerous device from the point of view of data security. A flash
drive doesn’t need installation on modern OSes and copies data faster than
many CD burners. A malicious user could simply plug it into any PC or server and
copy volumes of data within seconds.

Adoption

There are plenty of positives going for portable storage–so-me of which
make it a must-have for senior people in any organi-zation. And the market
trends indicate hard times ahead for IT administrators trying to regulate their
use in organizations. Per-haps the answer is to allow their usage with due
precautions at the administration level. After all, handled sensibly, such
devices may finally write the much-awaited obituary for the floppy drive.

Rishi Seth in New Delhi