What Exactly is Cloud Computing?

Gone are the days when a user had to entirely rely on his computer or portable hard drives and CDs/DVDs in order to save files. Now, thanks to Cloud computing, all your information can be stored on the internet through various cloud services operating on the web.

This also means that you no longer have to go through the complicated process of sharing and connecting all the files between your laptop, PC, smartphone, tablet or other portable device, because any device that you use that is connected to the internet can access these same files.

It enables you to share information with others, and you can give permission for others to access and download the information. It is extremely useful as a back-up system if your computer or other media device crashes. Everything from your documents to music and video files can be accessed from anywhere throughout the Internet.

Now even the videogame industry has taken advantage of the Cloud by developing cloud-based computer games that you can play without having to download or install them (one of these services, called OnLive, even allows users on low-powered computers to play high-end games by running the game through a special server).

Common Cloud Examples

The global influence of the Cloud across all demographics demonstrates the many ways it is employed daily by the general public. Many are familiar with Dropbox, one of the most popular services due to its high storage availability for free users (2 GB—with more storage options available at a fee). You can upload any file –photos, videos, or music and more—and send it to whomever you want to access it and download it from any device connected to the internet. Aside from Dropbox, other sharing services include Safesync, Box and Opendrive, while Google has Google Drive as well as its own special ‘Cloud Music’ service called Google Music, which allows you to store up to 20,000 songs. Apple especially has its own extremely successful brand, ‘iCloud’ that lets you link information that is on the cloud across all Apple computers, smartphones and other Apple devices, Microsoft Office 365 utilizes cloud computing for storage using Microsoft One Drive. Additionally, many other web services like Youtube utilize Cloud technology, and so do on-demand video providers like Netflix, thus showing how Cloud technology has been incorporated into the most diverse fields of industry. 

Cloud Hardware

Presently, the primary example of cloud hardware is Chromebook. This laptop runs on Chrome OS which automatically turns Google Chrome web browser into an operating system. With a Chromebook, everything you do is online: apps, media and storage are all in the cloud. 

The use of Cloud computing in the business world has increased the advantages for small to medium sized companies in succeeding in a highly thriving yet increasingly competitive marketplace that is saturated with vendors and service providers. For those who have successfully employed Cloud services, it has promoted a higher level of inter-departmental collaboration among all sectors in the organization, based on a greater sharing and exchange (and inter-change) of ideas between all employees and the managerial levels for achieving goal-oriented strategies and solutions—reducing the level of bureaucracy, facilitating and accelerating the integration and analysis of pertinent data, increasing market visibility and presence, and thus optimizing the organizational infrastructure and capability of the company, while giving it a greater competitive edge vis a vis bigger players. Its importance in the business world is also evinced certain European Union statistics that indicate how presently 42% of UK and US companies are looking to hire experts in Cloud computing. Indeed, 43% of those same companies are having trouble finding competent professionals to employ from the field, showing how currently there is a lack of expertise in this area but how at the same time it is destined to become one of the most rising professions in the IT world. Thankfully, there are several excellent and innovative resources that can help one acquire the necessary skills and expertise, such as for example theCloudAcademy, which offers courses and even provides Cloud Computing Certification (that one can use when applying for jobs in the industry). 

Of course, there are some downsides to the Cloud. As we all know—many of us from personal experience—too much personal information stored online is dangerous and can lead to infiltration and infringement of intellectual property laws. There are hackers and the threat of industrial espionage. We have seen the problems Facebook and Google have had in the past few years and their illegal appropriation of personal information that was turned over to the NSA and other intelligence agencies around the world for security purposes, which regardless of the global terrorist threat was totally unjustifiable and a direct violation of personal privacy. Putting all your information in the hands of big Cloud computing providers—or any big corporation or monopoly for that matter— can thus be seen as a risk. This, however, is also the reason why there is a need for professional IT experts who can understand these potential dangers and instruct a company on how to effectively and safely implement cloud technology.

Source: PC Mag IT News Africa