The Cloud: your data anywhere
Not a new idea, but a new name that promises universal, synchronised access to your data from anywhere. Welcome to The Cloud...
In the computing world, it’s not easy to keep up with new terminology and jargon. However when one new buzzword – The Cloud – promises to make your life easier, your data easier to access and your computing experience less frustrating, you’d be wise to pay close attention.
We’re going to look at:
- The problems The Cloud solves
- Examples of The Cloud in use
- Some potential problems and pitfalls of relying totally on cloud-based services (at least just yet).
Introducing The Cloud
The Cloud is actually not a new idea or even any one ‘thing’. It’s a collection of existing technologies and ideas that have been labelled with a groovy new buzzword to make the idea easier to explain and market to the public.
Essentially, The Cloud is a term to describe computer processing and storage that takes place online (on the web), as opposed to on your own computer desktop.
The ultimate promise of The Cloud is universal access to your data and computing convenience, at any place and any time, from any computer with an internet connection.
We’ll delve deeper in a moment, but first…
A bit of background
In recent years computers (and computer storage space) have dropped in price dramatically, whilst what you get for your money has increased exponentially.
For the same price or less we enjoy more memory, faster processors, faster broadband internet access and more file storage space.
As a result more people use and own more computing devices than ever before: multiple computers and laptops at work and at home and an explosion of alternative devices with impressive processing power and internet capabilities – iPods, iPhone, mobile smart phones, games consoles, etc.
Our computers are increasingly becoming a digital lifestyle hub, with many of us storing and managing our lives on our computers – music, photos, calendars, emails, contacts and more.
So what’s the problem there?
There are several downsides to these developments, as some of you will no doubt have experienced:
- Files and data distributed across multiple machines – emailing files to yourself or carrying memory sticks backwards and forwards gets tiresome quickly.
- Backups – it takes just one failed hard drive or stolen iPod to lose those precious photos and music files. Hands up who backs up all their data in a 100% fail-safe way?
- Synchronisation – wouldn’t it be nice to sit at another computer – any computer – and have your files, settings, photos, contacts and calendar instantly available just as you left them?
The Cloud promises to solve these problems and more.
The promise of The Cloud
So what is The Cloud? Put simply, it’s a catch-all terms to describe software and services which allow us to do things online that we’ve until now done on our own computers!
- Storing files online
- Working in applications online
- Synchronising data online
- Sharing files online
In fact, The Cloud promises to allow us to do pretty much everything we’d normally do on our own computers, but online on the web instead.
What makes all this possible?
These services take advantage of:
- faster and cheaper broadband
- online storage space dropping dramatically in price
- free or cheap Wi-Fi (wireless internet) becoming increasingly ubiquitous
- an explosion in the power and sophistication of web browsers (that’s the likes of Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer to you and I!)
What do these Cloud services allow me to do?
Just some examples of what The Cloud allows you to do online – you’ll be aware of most of these already!
- Have an email account you can access from anywhere, and that stays perfectly in sync (as opposed to accessing your email on just 1 computer)
- Create, edit and share Word or Excel documents directly within your web browser, as opposed to on your own computer, for free!
- Store or back up files online automatically and access them anywhere, anytime
- Keep calendars and contact data in sync across every computer and device you own
- Edit photos online
- Share photos and video
- Catch up on a bit of telly!
This is just the tip of the iceberg. We’ll be looking at some specific applications and examples of The Cloud in action in a future article very soon.
What’s the real advantage of Cloud computing?
- Shared resources – processing power and storage can be shared across multiple web servers across the world
- Secure backups – it doesn’t matter if your hard drive blows, your computer is stolen or your house burns down – your data is (theoretically, at least) safe online
- Sharing is easy – if it’s online, it’s accessible to anyone you want to share with
- Automatic synchronisation – if it’s online, it’s already synched up and accessible from any computer anywhere.
- Platform agnostic – use a PC at work and a Mac at home? No problem – just access your files using any modern web browser.
- No technical skill required – online applications are already installed and ready to go, meaning you don’t need a degree in computer science to get a new office intranet up and running or introduce a company-wide CRM system.
What are the disadvantages?
Despite the obvious advantages, many people have concerns about putting their data online, rather than confining it to their own machines. Is it really a good idea placing your life and business in someone else’s hands?
Here are some of those concerns:
- Security – is your private data really safe stored on the web on another company’s servers?
- Who owns your data – don’t immediately presume that your documents remain your property
- No internet connection – if you can’t get on the internet, you can’t access your data in the Cloud
- Service goes under – if the provider of your Cloud-based service disappears, either temporarily or permanently, you could be in trouble. It happened very publicly to Amazon’s S3 storage service recently causing a huge backlash from thousands of businesses and other Cloud-based providers who depend on its services.
Coming next…
Look out for our detailed rundown of some of the best examples of Cloud-based computing, coming very soon.
What next?
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