The cloud, cloud storage and cloud computing. Sounds familiar, right? Sure, you know the terms- but what exactly does it mean? In basic terms, when you save something to the cloud, you then make it available to access remotely, from any desktop or laptop. It becomes stored in a virtual ‘cloud’ server instead of on your computers hard drive. You probably already use a cloud without realizing it. Ever check your email—yahoo, Gmail, or AOL mail? That there is a cloud, because you can log in to any device and access it since all the emails are stored on the mail servers instead of your computer’s hard drive. If you lose your computer for any reason (system fries, screen becomes cracked or any other reason) you can still access your email on other devices. There are major benefits from using cloud storage as opposed to having datacenters. Cost, speed, productivity, performance, reliability, security and the global scale at which the cloud reaches are major reasons to use the cloud. There are also multiple types of clouds- public, private and hybrid. Public clouds are operated by third-party providers like Microsoft Azure. Private clouds are used exclusively by a single business and located on-site; the services and infrastructures are maintained on that private network. Hybrid clouds allow businesses to have greater flexibility, options and helps optimize the existing infrastructure and security.

There are many reasons to use a cloud- from storage, sharing and backing up data. All sorts of things can be stored and shared on the cloud, from pictures, videos, and documents. Dropbox and Google are the most popular cloud-based storages now, while Flickr and iCloud photos can help share photos with friends and family. When it comes to backing up files to protect them, apps like Carbonite automatically saves your data to the cloud. There are certain sites you can visit, that act like a cloud, without needing to be downloaded. Facebook lets you share info and pictures in real time and allows friends and family members to comment on them right then and there. Pixlr is an image editor similar to photoshop and Google Docs is an office suite like Microsoft that lets you create documents and presentations. Everything you do on these sites, is all stored on the individual clouds, making it easy to share with others. The main thing with accessing clouds on different computers is to ensure you log out of your accounts. If you accidentally leave your google drive open, then the next person who uses that particular computer potentially has access to all of your shared documents and photos. The same goes for emails and social medias like Facebook.

Computer Basics: Understanding the Cloud (gcfglobal.org)

What Is Cloud Computing? A Beginner’s Guide | Microsoft Azure