WHAT IS THE CLOUD PART 1

Have you noticed all of a sudden people are talking about the cloud and uploading to it?

What is it and how does it work? Well lets look at the definition of the cloud “The Cloud is a network of servers and each has a different function. Some servers use computing power to run applications or ‘deliver service’ like Icloud, Dropbox, One Drive and very recently Adobe”. Since the cloud was created applications have popped up left right and centre.

Over the next few posts I will be going through each of the main cloud services and how they work and their benefits.

In layman’s terms, The Cloud is just a bunch of servers based all over the world saving your pictures and documents from your computer,phone or tablet so you can access them anywhere and also retrieve them if your computer has failed, been stolen or lost.

You can upload to it, sync to it and also backup to it, protecting your data and using as a secondary backup to your external hdd backup which we all should have ?

Is it safe? Most cloud services have their own security measures in place to protect your personal items and in the terms and conditions they explain that to you.

What about the hacking of cloud services in the news? In most cases they have obtained the password by hacking the computer directly and hacking the cloud to gain access. That’s where Virus protection comes in protecting both the cloud and your computer.

Now most of us have more than one device and when we take a photo or add contacts etc, how amazing would it be if it synced across all devices and you didn’t need to do a thing. Well that is what having the cloud is all about, being able to sync/backup and add all types of files to make your life easier.

How does it work? Well when we have our devices set correctly wether it be PC or Mac we can access and sync across all of our devices so that if you are on the train and want to keep working on that document you started at work, you can. You are on holidays and taking photo’s with your phone, as soon as you are in a wi-fi area they sync automatically to all devices so no copying when you get home and no worry of loosing them if anything happens to the phone whilst away.

headway-information-services-understanding-the-cloud

This is just some of the amazing benefits of having the cloud work for you. Part 2 we will be looking at Icloud for Apple users and how it can work across Apple and Windows devices. Part 3 we will look at DropBox and finally Part 4 will be One Drive for Business and Personal.

Stay tuned for the next installment and if you have any questions or topics you would like me to cover with these cloud devices let me know.