The amount of information stored on starship computers seems to be vast. Is there any indication that Starfleet ships in close enough proximity can access the nearest starbase and download/upload/access information?
I understand the convenience of storing it all locally, first, you're not sending out any signals so enemy ships can't pick them up, and second, you most likely will be in situations where you're not close enough to a starbase to make a connection.
I found this answer:
The use of a portable device for holding offline data, that is "loaded" into a computer on demand, is a pretty universal concept. This would be particularly useful if your vessel spends a lot of time at faster-than-light speeds. Cloud computing would be right out.
I disagree; there are benefits to storing information in the cloud, provided the starship is in the appropriate environment. For example, the the crew of a starship could have made a medical discovery that's beneficial and want to share the information, or they may have encountered a previously undiscovered group of hostile aliens and want to share that information with all other starships.