There is one main reason that a business requires storage devices: to put your data somewhere other than your computer's hard drive. But why shouldn't it stay on the hard drive?

Security
Your hard drive is not the safest place to store your files. Any computer left out in the open is at risk for tampering from burglars or corporate spies, or just nosy employees.

Natural disasters
In most businesses, the information stored on computer hard drives is irreplaceable. Customer databases, tax records, marketing materials, and intellectual property may all be stored on computers throughout the office.

But every year, thousands of companies lose computer data because of fires, floods, or even leaky ceilings. For some, such a data loss can be the end of the business.

Hard drive crashes
If your hard drive crashes, and it's the only place you store your files, you can kiss your data goodbye. Your hard drive is also susceptible to corruption from computer viruses passed on through floppy disks, emails, or files downloaded from the Internet.

Sure, there are recovery utilities that can try to retrieve files from a hard drive after it has crashed or has been corrupted. But that's still a big risk for you to take with your business. It's also a pretty nerve-wracking experience whether or not you get the data back.

Space
Even if hard drives were 100 percent secure and crash-proof, there's still an issue of space. These days most businesses generate data that requires far more storage space than your average 6 - 10 GB hard drive found on the typical corporate PC.

Portablility
You can't exactly carry your desktop computer around with you. And it's not always practical or feasible to email files. To transport your files, you'll often need storage media.