Speed is great, but it isn't always the most important thing. For instance, a very fast car is surely fun, but if the vehicle is unreliable and dangerous, who really cares about speed? I'd rather arrive to my location alive and without breaking down -- even if it takes a bit longer.

That is sort of the philosophy behind Samsung's newest "PRO Endurance" microSD card. Rather than focus on raw performance, this card is instead designed for longevity and durability. It is an ideal storage solution for surveillance cameras, police body-cameras, automobile dash-cams, and more. With all of that said, while the card isn't the fastest on the market, it isn't really slow either -- it offers up to 100MB/s read and up to 40MB/s write.

Solid state drives continue to get faster, with many new computers supporting the PCIe 4.0 standard. If you have such a cutting-edge PC, you will probably want to get a PCIe 4.0 SSD to maximize your performance. Is it largely for bragging rights and benchmarks? Yeah, arguably, but if you can afford it, you might as well go for a PCIe 4.0 drive. The price shouldn't be that much more than a PCIe 3.0 SSD.

Today, KIOXIA unveils its latest PCIe 4.0 NVMe solid state drive. Called "XG8," the SSD will be offered in your choice of four capacities -- 512GB, 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB. Of course, this solid state drive can be used in both desktop and laptop computers.

When it comes to storing data, businesses can often feel inundated with options from a whole host of different providers all promising to offer competitive rates and the security of your businesses’ assets. Add blockchain solutions into the mix as well, and decision-makers have a lot to be weighing up when choosing the best solution for their business.

With cloud-based technologies and blockchain in particular, jargon can be a problem when it comes to fully understanding the principles and mechanics at play. For this reason, many business leaders may dismiss these technologies, without considering the benefits they could offer. So, what exactly is Filecoin?

Solid state drives make wonderful internal boot drives for computers, but they are great options for external storage too. Not only are they smaller than mechanical hard disk drives, but they use less power and are much quicker as well. Quite frankly, if you are someone that needs to transport data on a portable drive, you'd be crazy to still use a HDD with moving parts.

Today, ADATA launches its latest portable solid state drive. Called "ELITE SE880," the tiny SSD offers very fast speeds thanks to its USB 3.2 Gen2 x2 interface. The drive has a USB-C port and ships with both a USB-C to USB-C cable and a USB-C to USB-A cable. In other words, it can be used with any modern computer -- whether it has a USB Type-C port or not.

Data volumes have skyrocketed in recent years, and Statista estimates that 59 sextillion bytes were generated in 2020 -- more than twice the amount generated in 2017. 

What are we doing with the vast quantities of knowledge available to us? In most cases, as businesses, absolutely nothing. Only .5 percent of knowledge collected by organizations is used or analyzed, and less than half (.25 percent) plays any part in business decision-making.

Today is World Backup Day, which is a good opportunity to remind you that you only have a couple of days left to get your hands on some free backup software courtesy of our AOMEI giveaway.

It's also an opportunity to look at the continued importance of backups even in the modern world of clouds and SaaS applications. A new report from Crucial highlights the ongoing cost of data breaches which has risen 9.8 percent from 2020 to 2021.

So, you just took a bunch of photos with your camera and now it is time to transfer the pics to your computer, eh? OK, just remove the storage card from your camera and insert it directly into your computer. What? You can't do that? Oh, that's right -- many computer manufacturers are no longer including integrated card readers these days. Ugh. I guess those photos will be stuck on the card forever, right?

Actually, no. You can simply connect an external card reader to your computer to transfer those photos (or other file types). Today, Lexar launches its latest such reader. Called "Professional USB-C Dual-Slot Reader," it connects with (you guessed it) USB Type-C and is compatible with both SD and microSD cards.

Mushkin may not be a household name, but if you are a seasoned PC builder, you should be familiar with it. I have purchased the company's RAM several times, and have always been satisfied with the results. In other words, I can confidently recommend Mushkin products based on my experiences.

Today, Mushkin launches its latest solid state drive. Called "Redline Vortex," the M.2 SSD utilizes the INNOGRIT IG5236 PCIe 4.0 controller to achieve impressive performance. This drive features read speeds up to 7,415MB/s and write speeds up to 6,800MB/s. Very nice!

Enterprises are producing larger and larger amounts of data and as they deploy more IoT, edge and 5G devices the volume is only likely to increase.

This puts more pressure on storage capacity which has the potential to be an inhibiting factor in digital transformation. We spoke to Dr Tong Zhang, co-founder and chief scientist at ScaleFlux, to learn more about the importance of storage to enterprise IT plans and infrastructure.

When it comes to storage drives, faster is always better, right? Well, yes, but remember, better performance usually comes at a higher price. And so, if you don't need bleeding edge speeds, why should you pay for it?

Despite the prevalence of PCIe 4.0 solid state drives, and the emergence of PCIe 5.0 SSDs, the truth is, most consumers would probably not notice the speed benefits they offer over, say, a PCIe 3.0 SSD. Hell, many would likely see no difference between PCIe and SATA. For those consumers that don't need a PCIe 4.0 or 5.0 SSD, today, Silicon Power unveils a new PCIe 3.0 (Gen3x4) drive. Called "UD80," it actually has very respectable read and write speeds.

We recently told you about a new flash drive from Silicon Power that was rather unremarkable and ho-hum. Called "Marvel M02," it is your typical run-of-the-mill USB-A drive. Its lack of excitement is absolutely fine, however, as sometimes all you need is a basic flash drive for general use. Not every product has to be exciting.

Well, folks, there is yet another new flash drive from Silicon Power, and it is anything but boring. While its design is nothing special, its performance is. Called "Marvel Xtreme M80," this USB-A drive offers read performance up to 600MB/s and write performance up to 500MB/s. In other words, as its name implies, this drive is extremely fast!

Nowadays, professional photographers with high-end camera equipment are embracing CFexpress storage cards more and more. The problem? Those cards are quite expensive. Not to mention, many photographers can get by fine without using top of the line. And so, for many photographers -- amateur and professional alike -- SD cards remain a great option.

Thankfully, companies are still manufacturing new SD cards, and today, Lexar launches its latest. The GOLD Series Professional 1800x UHS-II U3 SDXC storage card is both fast and durable. Best of all, pricing starts at just $36.99, making it affordable for all consumers.

With cloud storage being so ubiquitous, USB flash drives have largely fallen out of favor with consumers. Maybe that's not such a bad thing, as USB flash drives are easy to lose and are susceptible to failure -- the cloud is arguably more safe and secure. With that said, there will always be a need for local storage, as sometimes there are files you simply don't want on the cloud. Not to mention, flash drives are useful for installing operating systems, such as Windows 11 and Ubuntu.

Thankfully, despite a decrease in consumer interest, manufacturers are still releasing new USB flash drives. Today, Silicon Power unveils its latest such product. Called "Marvel M02," the USB-A storage device is fairly unremarkable, but that isn't a bad thing -- a flash drive doesn't need to be anything other than reliable. And Silicon Power drives have historically been dependable.

The vast majority of consumers don't own a computer with PCIe 4.0 support, so almost no one is currently reaping the benefits of a PCIe 4.0 solid state drive. Hell, most consumers don't really need anything more than a meager SATA SSD these days. Enthusiasts that desire the "latest and greatest" are the only ones truly clamoring for hardcore PCIe 4.0 SSD performance -- mostly just for bragging rights.

Of course, the computer industry will continue to push boundaries in an effort to avoid being stagnant. And so, PCIe 5.0 is on the horizon -- even though it is largely unnecessary. TEAMGROUP is happy to manufacture such an SSD, and today, it teases exactly that. Under the company's T-FORCE gaming brand, a PCIe 5.0 NVMe 2.0 SSD should hit stores later this year.

The transition to PCIe 4.0 is in full effect, with more and more computers and motherboards having the new standard. Whether or not the user truly needs the benefits of PCIe 4.0 is debatable, but it is still cool regardless. After all, it is important to continually push boundaries.

One of the best aspects of PCIe 4.0 is faster solid state drives. For instance, today, Patriot launches a new such SSD. Called "P400," the M.2 drive uses the 4th-gen PCIe interface to deliver fast speeds while its graphene heatshield will keep things cool.