Another essay about cloud storage, but more use-case specific. You can skip this if the topic has bored you.

Husband and I were recently discussing the best way to back-up the many gigabytes of our wedding films and photographs — after we went through the brief but all-consuming panic of thinking we’d lost it all (thankfully, a false alarm). You see, everything is on the “cloud” now, but we are talking about content that we intend to preserve “forever” — not just for our lifetimes, but hopefully for future generations as well (we are of course assuming that they would be interested). For that kind of permanence, cloud storage quickly becomes hella expensive.

Think about it. Google’s 100GB plan currently costs INR 1300/yr with the annual subscription. If we assume subscribing for the next 40 years (we’re both in our 30s), that comes to over INR 50,000. The actual cost would be much higher for several reasons: one, Google’s pricing will obviously change over the years; two, our general digital storage needs will increase with time; and three, if we’re lucky, we might live longer, thus extending our subscription. And this is for Google’s cloud storage. Apple might prove to be even more expensive (iCloud currently offers a 200GB tier, not a 100GB one).

We did that math and the cost did not feel right, or even fair. We also asked ourselves another question — are we sure Google will be around that long? Are we sure Google Cloud will exist “forever”? Who knows. It probably will, but if there is any chance it won’t, should we back up our content with another service? That would quickly multiply our costs.

We found ourselves getting a bit frustrated. Who wants to recalibrate their storage needs for wedding footage every year for the rest of their life? Isn’t this one of those things you ideally handle once and forget about — only to serendipitously revisit years later? After all, old photos and videos are best enjoyed with a tinge of surprise and nostalgia. It wouldn’t be fun any other way.

Our parents would get a few albums and a DVD made by the wedding photographer, stow it in a cabinet, and revisit it years later at the insistence of their kids or guests. Husband and I (products of the digital age) had our memories delivered in this fancy format — thousands of stunning photos and video footage saved on a cloud service with AI-based face-recognition features to easily find pictures of loved ones. But years later, none of it would matter if the content was lost (not that it would matter much otherwise). And here’s the thing: when it comes to digital storage, there are only two possibilities — you either have it all, or lose it all.

Finally, we decided that some things (like many others) are best done the old-fashioned way. So we’ve backed everything up on our laptops and plan to purchase external hardware to preserve copies. There’s just something about the tangibility of hardware that inspires trust — a faith that it may last, even if it doesn’t. That, even as a remote possibility, is something I have come to value more than anything else in the virtual-ness of the real world and the softness of modern hardware and the cloud-iness of the internet.

Of all the things we can worry about, it’s the storage for our wedding photos and videos that’s currently on our minds. At times like these, I’m reminded why life in the digital age doesn’t feel as freeing as all this innovation should have made it. What used to be a few big worries has now been replaced by dozens of inconsequential, infinitesimal worries that thrive perpetually, often beyond reason or control.

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