Majority would rather lose a device than the content stored in it You may be able to replace a lost smartphone, but are you able to replace your personal photos stored on the device? Most people would agree that a device may be an expensive investment, but memories are priceless. A recent survey conducted in Asia Pacific by Microsoft shows that 67 per cent of consumers would rather lose their device than the content stored on it. The survey was conducted online with 481 respondents in four Asia Pacific markets, including Vietnam to find out how familiar consumers are with cloud storage and how often they are using it. Users place importance on safeguarding their personal files and storing everything in one place while having access from a variety of devices. This explains the increased appeal for using cloud services like Microsoft OneDrive today. In fact, 87 per cent of respondents polled said that they would prefer using a cloud service which works with all the devices they own today.  OneDrive is Microsoft’s complimentary, personal cloud storage service that lets users store important photos, videos and documents in one place which are then easily accessible on a variety of devices that they use every day. Formerly known as SkyDrive, the new OneDrive offers users up to 7GB of complimentary storage – the equivalent of more than 7,000 photos and enables them to access their important files easily and securely. The OneDrive service is available today on the latest versions of Windows, Windows Phone, Mac OS X, iOS, Android and Xbox, making it the only cloud storage service that is available on all these operating systems. The survey also found that: 78 per cent of respondents rely on a cloud service today to store documents, while 77 per cent use it to store personal photos. Other findings were that 78 per cent of respondents access cloud services on their mobile devices, which includes both smartphones and tablets and 76 per cent of respondents would suffer negative impact if they lose their important personal documents such as a contract or a financial document. This rises to 86 per cent with users’ loss of personal photos. Vu Minh Tri, Microsoft General Director said: “In the past, people did not store their money in banks but rather trusted the security of a safe in their closets or a tin buried somewhere. This is akin to cloud services becoming a mainstream service among consumers in recent years while the concept of cloud computing has been around since the 1950s. “Today, we are actively creating, storing and sharing precious digital content across our notebooks, tablets and smartphones. We encourage consumers in (insert Sub) to bank on OneDrive to harness its security and privacy features as well as the ability to offer seamless accessibility of information across a variety of devices, making it the one place for everything in their lives.” VIR