Dropbox is a cloud service similar to things like Google Drive or Icloud. It uses cloud computing as storage space for documents, images, videos, and music files. This system would work without cloud computing, as flashdrives and hard storage are available, however, sharing files would be more difficult without meeting someone face to face. The advantages to having the system on a distributed network are that things are easily shareable between users, and that data is less likely to be lost by either loss or damage, which is typical of hardware storage such as flash drives or home computers. There are definitely privacy issues involved in cloud computing. Since cloud computing is done through a private company, the company can access any user’s information easily and give it to nefarious users, or the government.
Word online is a cloud service that is much like Microsoft word, but instead of being a program on your PC it is an online version that automatically saves your papers to OneDrive, Microsoft’s cloud storage service. The system can work without cloud computing, as it is an update to the original, which used to be exclusively on home computers, but without the advantage of automatically being saved to a cloud network. The advantages to having word on a distributed network are: documents can be worked on together by multiple users, documents are automatically saved to a data-storage network, and can be shared online instead of having to be carried on hardware drives, which have the potential to be lost, stolen, corrupted, damaged, or destroyed. Privacy issues with Word Online would be Microsoft stealing information typed out by users, hackers stealing documents, whether through intercepting sent documents, stealing passwords, and stealing other information to gain access to private users’ documents.
Dropbox: Cloud Storage to Backup, Sync, File Share APKs. www.apkmirror.com/apk/dropbox-inc/dropbox/.
Rivers, David. “What Is Word Online?” Lynda.com – from LinkedIn, 27 Aug. 2020, www.lynda.com/Word-tutorials/What-Word-Online/2822370/2281136-4.html.
Whitney, Lance. How to Use Microsoft Office for Free on the Web. 29 Mar. 2020, www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-use-microsoft-office-for-free-on-the-web.