It seems everything nowadays offers cloud storage, a place you can keep things up in... the cloud? What is "the cloud", what kind of things go into it, and how does it work? Cloud storage has been around for a long time, but it's seen a surge in popularity in recent years. (Note: This is not a full, technical explanation. This blog, and the articles within, serve to give a "normal person's" understanding of technical topics.)
When people talk about "the cloud" they are generally speaking about servers held by a particular company. A server is a physical computer that serves only one purpose- the kind we'll be discussing are storage servers, and their job is to hold, transfer, and move data and information around. When you put something up in "the cloud" you're sending the file over the Internet, and onto one of these servers. Once it's there, you can access it from any computer you want using the same website you used to put it up. That's it! Cloud storage in a nutshell.
Sometimes cloud storage is known as a "drop box", which I find is a lot less vague. Cloud storage is a lot like your own personal locker on the Internet, where you can access it wherever and whenever you'd like. How big your "locker" is depends on what the company offering it to you has allotted. Sometimes they're small, just big enough for a picture of two, or sometimes they're larger, allowing you to share whole movies with your friends and family.
Practical Tip of the Day:
Cloud storage can be used as a good way to back up your most important files from a "meteor falling on my house" sort of emergency, but may not be a good primary source of backup, especially if you ware using a cloud storage company that also offers file transfers (as many do). A good, recent example of this is a company called MegaUpload. It was taken offline by the government for being a place people would share copyrighted material like movies and music. Unfortunately, there were also lots of people who were using it for legitimate purposes like sharing important business files or storing person files like backups, photos, etc. At this point in time, they are still unable to access any of their files.
So, that's what Cloud storage means! I've been wondering what it was! I thought it was the program that Apple launched before, although it has the same purpose. The Cloud storage your referring here is all the online data storage on the internet. Dropbox is definitely one of them, but it's only limited to 2gb of files, unless you're going to buy their premium package. Ruby Badcoe
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this, Amanda! Now I’ll understand what people will mean when they tell me about cloud storage. I actually have a Dropbox account that I use frequently without knowing that it is actually cloud storage! I find it very useful for storing backup files and sharing some of my e-books to my sisters and friends. Although, the free space is quite limiting with only 2gb. However, you could avail of the upgraded account or refer it to many friends to get lots of free space.
ReplyDeleteDoug Leven
Technology has made cloud systems more advanced up to this date. For office systems, they have to invest in a bigger cloud storage system so that they can store more important files and documents. They can also have a file administrator to monitor all stored files and prevent dissemination of confidential information.
ReplyDeleteMetroffice.com