There was a time when internet speed was slow, and people used to prefer torrent websites to share and download large files more efficiently. But now, the internet speed is fast, devices are fast, servers are fast too, hence instead of torrenting these days, users or companies are preferring cloud storage to keep data secure and centralized.
This cloud storage offers fast downloading speed and secure downloads. You can create an account for free on cloud platform, upload files, and share file links to others via email. So, with a fast internet like 4G, 5G, or fiber optics broadband, you can download heavy files on your system, and if you share the link, the other person can download it in minutes (depends on how fast internet is).
Popular Cloud Storage Providers
At present cloud storage is one of the best and easy way to save the data which you can access easily later on any device anytime. You don’t need to save data on device memory, pen drive, memory card. All you need to sync phone with cloud storage and now each and every file will be auto saved on the cloud in minutes.
Depends on the need, the service providers list will vary…
1. An Individual or Small Scale Company
Being an individual, or small-scale company, you can prefer the service from Google Drive, Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive, Apple iCloud, Amazon Drive, and many more. Up to some limit like 15GB in Google drive and up to 5GB in OneDrive, the cloud storage is absolutely free for lifetime, but if you want more storage like 1TB or 2TB to save data, then you have to opt for paid plan on monthly or yearly basis!
These type of cloud storage are rock solid for a person who need a space on the internet to save and share data. These storage are fast and can be accessed easily on any device via web browser in just 1 single tap!
2. Medium and Large-scale Organizations
But, being a medium and large-scale organizations like Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, the scalable cloud storage solutions are being provided by Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure Cloud, Amazon AWD. Here, the streaming providers setup their whole business on these cloud platforms and use the premium quality fast and secure cloud storage, which offers fast downloading and streaming experience to a subscriber over the torrenting.
With the cloud, an individual or organization can upload data quickly and share it to others via email or set it as public. Uploading content on the cloud and sharing is very, very simple. Here’s a quick demo, how it works?
- You have to just create a free account on the platform, and you have to activate some of the services.
- Later you have to upload the content or file on the cloud platform. You can add any type of file on your cloud, and once the uploading process gets done, a link will appear.
- You can share this link to others directly or via email, so other person can download data.
Cloud Storage vs Torrent
Torrent
In torrenting, you need to a.) download torrent software like BitTorrent, and later you b.) search for a particular torrent file, and once it downloads, it is c.) automatically picked by the BitTorrent software and downloading gets started.
The download speed depends on number of peers. If more peers, the download speed would be a bit faster. If less, then the speed would be less. So, there was a lot of dependency available when you downloaded a large file via torrent.
Pros to Use Torrent
- No issue to download large files, whatever you want to download from the torrent (large files, movies, tv series, ebooks), all get downloaded without getting corrupted.
- It is a reliable source compared to direct download because the same file is distributed among multiple peers and if one peer goes down the downloading process continues as the other peers are still active.
- This is absolutely a free source and cost-effective to share data with others on internet worldwide.
Cons to use torrent
- The download process it bit slow as compared to cloud storage, and sometimes you might have to wait for five to six hours, or you might have to wait for one day or two days.
- Downloading speed depends on active peers, though your Internet is fast, but due to slow client server, you would get a slow speed, and a lot of time would be wasted.
- As these days torrenting mostly involved in copyright downloads, the torrents are marked as not safe to use.
- Due to its illegal use, many countries have banned the access of torrent websites and you can’t use them.
- Apart from that, torrent might contain malware. If any torrent file has malware, then ultimately your system will get hacked, and there will be serious privacy issue. Hackers might demand some money in the form of Bitcoin or cash or in any other form.
Cloud Storage
As the use of torrent nowadays is risky and packed with some limitations like peer dependency, copyright download, it is advised that use a different form of torrents, and the cloud storage is one of the best forms that you can use these days to download large size files.
On cloud, you can put a large-size file and download it easily. Same, if someone has a particular file on the cloud storage, you can easily download it on your device. The big movie streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, HBO Max, Hulu, etc. do same thing. They all upload movie copy in high quality on their secure server and now it is available to watch online; which is a legal and no-copyright issue.
The thing is, whatever limitation user were facing in torrent while downloading files, it all sorted by the cloud storage and this gives a clear idea that in upcoming years the torrent websites will not survive. Let me show you, how the rise of cloud storage is killing torrening? Have a look at some facts below:
- As compared to torrents, the cloud storage downloading process is much faster and quick. Just login and click on link to download file (no need to download a third-party apps).
- Though is it centralized and all material is in one place, still you can access and download the file anytime. (Behind the scene, the same copy of file is stored on multiple locations and while downloading you never ever face messages like – server is busy.) The file will always be available.
- The data you will access will be is fully protected and no issue of copyright!
- No restriction in any country, you can open it without using VPN in any other country and get access.
- The data you download from cloud storage is malware free and this is because the platform that provides the service, they check and scan each and every file before uploading. So ultimately, there is no chance of malware entry and the user gets a malware free experience.
- With the facility of Automatic syncing across devices, you can keep phone backup on cloud and retrieve later whenever required.
You can even secure the number of download options on cloud storage. You can even recommend who can download the file or who cannot. You can put a lot of restrictions and increase the file downloading security.
This way, you can make whole downloading process secure and safe.
Future of Torrenting with Cloud Storage
At present, you can see a number of users opted for the cloud storage, and ditched the torrent. The reason is that whatever they need, it is just one step away. The torrent websites data is now available in legal form on the legal movie streaming, sport streaming, and eBook downloading websites. You can just name a service, and you will find the related content on the cloud storage featured websites.
For an example: If you would like to watch a movie, then you can buy a subscription from streaming platforms. Netflix offers low cost per month subscription, and you can directly stream the movie in high quality instead of downloading it from the torrent. This is all possible because, Netflix and other streaming providers now use the cloud platform to store the movie files, and they store them in a very secure way, so no other person can access it. Only the person who subscribed can access it.
Similarly, if we talk about the stock images, videos, music, adult movies, then all these are now stored on cloud by the companies on their own servers. And all you can access by subscribing a plan which quite affordable!
Final Words
The popularity of torrent websites has declined from the last 10 years due to advancements in legal streaming services offering convenient access to a wide range of content, and increased enforcement of anti-piracy laws and regulations globally. The main reasons that dropped torrent interest among users are:
Rise of Streaming Services
Many people who earlier preferred torrent to download latest movies and music, now started using legal streaming platforms like Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, Spotify, YouTube as they all offer a vast library and quite affordable.
Convenience of Cloud Storage
On the other hand, by opting for cloud storage services; one to one file share having big size between individuals or groups is also quite possible and this one again impacted the torrent use at a big level.
So does that mean torrent will vanish soon?
Well we can’t give any judgement because torrents are still used to download open source, no copyright data. In addition to that, many people prefer torrents to download large size files instead of direct download. Hence, it will remain in the game when there is something related to downloading!
Finally, the cloud storage and streaming services have impacted torrent usage, but torrents likely won’t disappear entirely!
What’s your take on this? Please share opinion in comments and don’t forget to share it with others on social groups!
