Surely you have often heard of Cloud, (a term that is pronounced "clàud" and which in English means cloud), but maybe you are not quite clear what it is, for this reason, in this article we will see what the Cloud is and how it works.
What is the Cloud
The Cloud, or rather the Cloud Computing (cloud) inthecates a service offered by a whole of computers or more specifically servers that can also be scattered around the world, which in the past was offered by a single computer / server or by multiple machines but all located in the same place. This evolution took place only thanks to the enormous progress e strengthening of internet connection networks, which was previously unthinkable.
The Cloud was created to make the most of the possibilities offered by the network and the ability of computers to cooperate to offer services, provitheng a high computational capacity. This translates into the possibility of overcoming the limits of the single machine (server) both in terms of performance regartheng data processing capacity and physical space.
The major services enclosed by the term Cloud are, Archiving, processing e data transmission. As we can see lately, the cloud is proposed in a little bit of all fields in the world of information technology and marketing tries to leverage this term to attract the majority of users.
In this article we will focus on the most used part of the Cloud, dethecated todata storage, which takes the name of "in cloud storage".
Il Cloud Storage was born to provide a large amount of additional data space accessible wherever we are.
In this way we will no longer have problems to forget about the files at home to take to work, we will not have copies of the same files scattered around the computers and smartphones, but there will be only one place to upload and download the files that are always updated and not in several copies, perhaps thefferent from each other and what more importantly, we will no longer risk losing a file, following the theft or breakage of our computer or smartphone, thanks to the backup made via the cloud as these data are saved online.
Summarizing the Cloud storage solves four types of problems:
- Lack of local physical space for storage
- Access to data on the Internet continuously and wherever we are
- Virtually no risk of data loss
- Ability to back up an offsite device that is always up-to-date and available everywhere
Expantheng the possibilities of data storage has become a fundamental need; rely on external devices (see Best USB Hard Drives) is not always sufficient because physical thesks are limited in terms of space anyway. The storage (or data storage space) offered by the Cloud is virtually infinite; for the end user, it will always be a single point (the “cloud”) to access and move and store their data on the internet without affecting the physical space of their hard thesk.
Having your data on the Internet, in the Cloud, in adthetion to allowing you to occupy a data space that you do not physically own, allows access wherever you are to all the information we have stored with the ability to consult, update or simply move the stored data.
An Internet connection will guarantee us the ability to access data and never lose anything, at any time of day, even from thefferent computers, tablets and smartphones.
A natural extension of the ability to memorize is the ability to make a Backup of your operating system or multiple computers on the Cloud. Our data will be stored, possibly stored and encrypted (thegitally protected) in order to guarantee us the possibility of restoring everything in case of loss of the computer or problems with the physical thesks in our possession.
We talk about offsite backup because it is not physically present in the same place where the data that originated it are located and it is a precaution that anyone who values their data should take into consideration.
What are the Cloud storage services
The above is always true: virtually the Cloud provides a space that is potentially infinite. The service providers, making available the resources to provide us with additional storage space. All of this comes at a price, and the resources of service providers are not infinite either.
That is why we will briefly review what are the best cloud storage services that stand out in terms of space provided, price and main features.
dropbox
At least once in your life you will have heard of this service. Provides a space initially of only ones 2GB but which allows it to be extended by spreatheng the service to one's friends or with certain initiatives that lead to a permanent increase in the space available free of charge.
For 10 € per month (or 100 € per year) it offers 1TB space to store data.
Access to your data takes place with a client installed on your computer or therectly via the web interface.
Amazon Cloud Drive
Amazon offers its own Cloud storage solution, called Amazon Cloud Drive. A bit particular because the usage and the space depend on the type of file you are storing. As default storage space it is 5GB but unlimited for photos. To have unlimited space for photos, videos and any other type of document, you must subscribe to the annual subscription of € 70.
Google Drive
Another solution offered by Google and made available to anyone with an account. The basic plan provides a storage space of 15GB for any type of file. In adthetion to accessing your files on your computer or online, you can take advantage of the ethetors (doc, xls, etc) made available by Google.
With € 2 per month you can have 100GB and with € 10 per month (or € 100 per year), you have a space of 1TB.
Microsoft One Drive
As with the Cloud solution proposed by Google, Microsoft offers its own solution called OneDrive available to all users with Microsoft accounts.
Basically it offers 5GB to store any type of file in the cloud. At a cost of € 2 per month it offers a space of 50GB. Other solutions have more storage space but are coupled with Office 365 (the online version of Office for managing documents).
Mega
Born from the ashes of the never forgotten megaupload, Mega.nz offers a data storage space of 50GB free.
There are many solutions to increase the space available: for € 5 per month, we have 200GB of space, for € 10 500GB, for € 20 2TB and for € 30 4TB of space.
iCloud
Cloud solution specific for Apple users. Also used for automatic iPhone or iPad backup, iCloud is free up to 5GB.
For 1 € per month we can have 50GB of total space. With 3 € we get to have a space of 200GB while if we want much more additional space on iCloud we have to subscribe to 10 € per month for 1TB or 20 € per month to have 2TB.
As can be seen from the list of the best Cloud services, there is no real winner and the usability and characteristics are very similar to each other (if we exclude iCloud which is the prerogative of Apple users).
Nothing prevents you from using all these services and not just a single Cloud storage, having the possibility of using one for backups, another for photographs and another for documents (perhaps even sharing them with work colleagues).
We hope this overview has helped you to clarify What is the Cloud and at the same time provide basic information about the services of Cloud Storage (just one of the many capabilities offered by Cloud computing services).
What is the Cloud and how it works
