Based on the articles in "Inside Self Storage," a trade publication for the self storage industry, there are going to be a significant increase in the number of competitors in the records storage space. It is clear that they can make more selling their space by the space by the cubic foot instead of the square foot. They will rent their space cheaper than a traditional records storage operator.

So what are the main differences? It really is a level of service. A self-storage option will be less expensive but they don't offer all the same services. Generally they will not have fire suppression systems much less water-less ones. The security standards can not be the same with public foot traffic in the building. They don't offer courier service to retrieve documents. They also lack the management systems to track the disposition of records. Additional services like document scanning or media tape vaulting are less likely to be offered.

If you are business that doesn't need the additional services then the self service option will be a good choice to save you money. This is most likely small business storing records that are rarely -- if ever -- needed.