The State of The Data
(Study 2026 Edition)
What is “The State Of The Data”?
The “State of The Data” is our annual research study that discovers how photographers, artists, and creative pros use and store their creative data.
Why Do We Publish Our Study?
We feel that knowledge is power, and we don’t believe in keeping what we learned a deep dark secret.
Our hope is that artists everywhere can put our knowledge into practice so the whole community can benefit.
Why Do We Research?
At Uncloud Storage®, we serve the creative community, so we need to understand how the data storage needs of our community change over time.
What Changed This Year
582 Artists Surveyed
+134 more than 2025
In Person Interviews
+8 minutes longer than 2025
New Survey
+4 more new questions
Study Results
Study Result 1.
78% of artists rated their data storage system as complicated.
We asked follow up questions to discover what the 78% meant by “complicated”.
About half of the artists in that 78% said that they have to use 2 or more different storage tools to back up their art.
The other half said that they use a complex method that they created themselves, and they know of no other way to protect their data.
One common thread we found is that these artists had very different approaches to the way they store their creative data, but most were dissatisfied with their self designed system.
Study Result 2.
22% of artists rated their storage system as simple.
On further analysis, we discovered that these artists were able to finish an average of 2.6 more client jobs per week than the other respondents.
These artists also had measurably higher revenues, and a better average emotional outlook on their business.
Study Result 3.
For artists who rated their storage systems as complicated, 2 out of 3 said that they do not have an automated system to back up their art.
Many respondents wished they had a better system, but couldn’t spend the time to create a new system.
Study Result 4.
Artists who rated their storage systems as simple, were able to spend an average of 6-10 more hours per week on their art.
Most reported that they were able to get deeper into their work, and reported that they felt more productive and profitable.
The Top Ten
We took all of our survey respondents, and pulled out the top 10 scoring artists in an average of revenue, productivity, and client satisfaction.
We then arranged personal interviews with these 10 professionals to determine exactly what they are doing with their data to make their businesses so potent.
(even we were surprised by the results)
We were going to put the exact results here, but some of the respondents didn’t want their methods uploaded to the internet.
After quite a bit of convincing, 7 of the 10 top respondents agreed to anonymously share their storage workflow secrets in an offline PDF document that could not be easily found by their competition.
Fill out the form, and we will securely send you the PDF with the real creative data storage strategies that these top 7 artists actually use to drive their 6 figure businesses.