Cloud Computing - Continued Discussion

Several times earlier this year (in Feb. & May) we discussed Cloud Computing, but things are changing and there are more and more companies offering us the ability to store on their clouds (which means on their servers) So- the discussion continues...

There is no doubt that cloud computing is here to stay.  Many of us have been using "cloud computing" for years without realizing it - If you use a hotmail, yahoo, AOL or Gmail account" for your emails, you go to the specific company's website, via the internet, enter your user name & password (from any computer in the world) and your email messages appear. You can then write/compose new emails - all the while the computer you are sitting at, is simply a vehicle allowing us to see and type - but all of our emails are actually being stored and/or written on/from their computers....hence "cloud computing"

Today many of these same email vendors are providing us with additional free space, so that in addition to our emails we can also store our documents, photos, movies & music in another part of our "email account" - like having an additional file cabinet...  Why would we do that?

Well, like your emails, you can access any of these items stored on their "cloud" when you are away from your computer (home or work) because remember it's stored on their computer - in their cloud...

If you have multiple devices - you may want to "sync" them, so that when you enter information on one device, it appears on all your devices...   

For example:

You have a Windows based computer, a Smartphone & a tablet - if you have a Gmail account and use the Google Drive Cloud - whatever is entered in these on one computer shows up on the rest

Or You have an iPhone, iPad and MacBook - by simply having an iCloud ID and password (and the iCloud ID can be your existing email address w/hotmail, Gmail, etc..) you can select in the settings of your iCloud what you want to share among your devices-Photos, emails, contacts, calendars, etc..

Or maybe you have a Windows PC, an Android Smartphone and a MacBook - you could simply choose to have the Apple iCloud on all your devices to share your music, data & moves...

And the combination goes on and one..

If you have been using hotmail/live/msn accounts - you have "SkyDrive" which is their free cloud computing for us to store data and photos - but anyone can go to SkyDrive.com and download the app and receive a certain amount of storage for FREE - Gmail users have the free Picasa Web Albums and Google Drive cloud; and again anyone can use this or Apple/MAC's iCloud or any of the other hundreds of companies... most allow some free storage - others charge an annual or monthly fee - some based on the amount of storage, some are by computer - it varies..

Shop around and remember you can use multiple "cloud services"; I know some people who store all their music in iTunes synced with the iCloud; and use their SkyDrive for their documents; maybe DropBox for their data from work; Google Drive w/Picasa Web Albums for their photos and Carbonite, so everything is backed up every time they are on the computer (no limit) but this service doesn't allow you to use a syncing feature (yet)!

The list of companies offering cloud computing is growing every day.  Each has their own features, it depends on what you are looking for... I always think it's better to begin with the FREE services while you learn, and once you've mastered that and understand what it is you are using, then you can always switch to or add another service if needed...Here is the link to an article recently published about some of the popular "cloud computing companies" -

http://www.consumer-rankings.com/online-backup