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" -
