Flash drives are a huge part of the storage device industry today, which also includes SD memory cards and standard hard drives, among other devices. While each product is ideal for data storage, each is designed to meet certain storage requirements, and has its own limitations.

Here are some of the biggest advantages of flash storage, which you won’t find as often with other types of storage devices

Increased Durability

Unlike traditional hard-disk drives, flash drives lack moving parts. Hard drives are made of aluminum or glass platters that spin as data is read, but flash drives are solid-state drives that are less vulnerable to damage from drops or shocks.

Maximum Portability

Flash drives are also considerably smaller than other types of data storage devices, which makes them easy to store in convenient places such as pockets and key chains for increased portability. It’s much more difficult to do this with hard drives, as flash drives are often no longer than a few inches at most, with widths measuring less than an inch. Some flash drive designs may be larger in many cases, such as wider business card flash drives, but these designs place emphasis on customization over portability.

Plenty of Storage Capacity

Today’s flash drives offer a lot more storage space than older ones, with many of them capable of storing up to 128 GB at a maximum. Flash drives with one GB or less of memory are often the least expensive, and are often great for businesses to buy in bulk for mass distribution. However, if you require a backup for a hard drive or need to run certain programs, more storage capacity is ideal.

Fast Transfer Speeds

Today’s USB 3.0 devices have a transfer rate of up to 4.8 GB per second, which is a speed that other storage devices can’t match. Even the fastest hard-disk drives only reach transfer speeds of up to 150 MB.

Compatibility with Many Devices

The USB interface has become one of the best ways to connect flash drives to nearly any device. Whether you have a laptop, netbook, or desktop, you’ll likely find it has ports for three or more USB drives to allow you to plug in these devices without issue. This is far better than old-school SD memory cards, for which many computers don’t have slots.

Use Flash Drives as Promotional Materials

Flash drives’ affordability and availability for bulk purchase make them ideal for serving as marketing materials for brand awareness. Flash drives with customized designs can accurately reflect brands by featuring logos, company names, text, or graphics. You can also preload them with text, video or program files, or other information that users could access to learn more about your brand.

As flash drives continue to become more popular over time, more and more people will be able to see the benefits that these devices provide over other types of storage devices. While far from new, it’s unlikely we’ll see any physical device come along in the near future that’s as compatible and innovative as flash drives continue to be.