Every couples of years in the tech industry new terms are coined and thrown around that throws everything into array.
The “it” words like uber or cloud seem to take a life and meaning of their very own and a lot of people start wondering if they need or, why they don’t already have it.
But most of the time they end up finding out they had it all along, or something similar but just with a much less fancy name.
The cloud is one of these words and technologies.
The basics of Cloud Computing
The most basic way yo understand the cloud is to think of it like this.
When you are sitting behind your computer and you go to get something of it like music by accessing your documents or c: drive, you are accessing your computers local hard drive to retrieve.
The cloud is very similar, but instead of getting that music file from your computers hard drive, you are accessing it form somewhere else over the internet, like another server, or someones computer.
The cloud is a fancy way of saying the internet. When I was studying Computer Science at James Cook University the diagrams lecturers use to draw and represent the internet where in the shape of a cloud and now everything referenced by the internet is talked of “being in the cloud”.
To Cloud or Not to Cloud
As soon as a service becomes stored on the internet it becomes a cloud based service.
An example is a NAS drive I have at home. A NAS drive is basically a little computer that doesn’t do a whole lot more but store data like music and movies so other computer on your home network can access them whenever they are needed.
This is not a Cloud based service but it is very similar in that when you access your files you are getting them from another device, not the computer you are currently using.
However, when I put that same NAS server on the internet or accessible over the internet for myself or other people to access, it has now become a cloud based service.
Popular Cloud Services to Use
Some Cloud services are free, other you need to pay for.
A lot of them will let you try for free for a while or let you use a limited version for free with for example restrictions to space, and then charge you money when you require more space or resources.
Dropbox
The all time favourite Dropbox is a favourite by a lot of people because of its early market share, easy to install and use and generous free storage space.
Dropbox is a remote storage service where you can basically store any of your files.
Like the USB you plug into your computer or a file on your desktop you store or you photos, Dropbox proves a little icon on your screen where you can drag and install your important files.
The great thing about Dropbox is it works on most devices, meaning I can also put Dropbox on my phone as well and when I click on that same Icon, I can see all my files I put into it when I was on my computer.
This service is great, specially for people who collaborate as they can all have access to the same current files and I use it when I travel as well in case I loose important documents I can access them from any phone or computer, assuming I remember my password.
iCloud
Icloud is made by Apple and usually comes already installed on most Apple Devices.
Apples Icloud service takes it one step further than Dropbox in which it integrates into a lot of other services, other than just storing files.
Have you ever dropped your Iphone and broke it? You end up getting a new one and once you log back into your Icloud and Apple account miraculously all your phone number, photos and apps have mysteriously put themselves back on to your phone?
Congratulations, you had the fortitude to setup I cloud on your Iphone when you got it and where saving all your photos and media directly into the cloud all along.
Now every time you want to access them all you need to do is login and they would have been happily sitting on an Apple server somewhere in the world, waiting for you to get them.
The Pros and Cons of using the Cloud
The Pros far outweigh the cons. But there are always risks in life and the internet is no different.
The Pros of using the cloud based system is the convenience of accessing your file from anywhere in the world, when you need them at the fraction of the price if you were setting up your own system.
The cons are security and integrity of your data.
Using Cloud based systems it is hard to know who is looking at your data and what for. It could be a spying government of a dodgy network administrator.
Some companies take their data integrity and security seriously and other do not. Its important to do your own research when choosing a cloud service as different companies and governements all have different ideas on who owns your information.
