“I’m on cloud nine,” “you’ve got your head in the clouds,” “there’s a black cloud hanging over your head”—these are all sayings we’ve come to know and use in daily conversations without thinking twice. There’s a relatively new “cloud” saying that’s gaining traction because of its versatility and practicality for personal and business applications: the cloud, or cloud technology.
What is the cloud?
The cloud refers to where people store information. Instead of on a hard drive of a computer or laptop, information is stored “in the cloud,” or in other words, it’s hosted by a cloud service provider. Cloud technology greatly expands what has been the limited storage capabilities of computers, laptops and even smartphones to store pictures, videos and text.
With the evolution of wireless internet, innovative possibilities now exist for computer storage needs. It used to be that your only solution to getting around the physical storage limitations of your computer was to upgrade equipment—a costly measure—or purchase a separate, larger hard drive.
The cloud, however, offers unlimited storage capacity for a monthly cost. And some providers offer free accounts. All you have to do is upload your music, pictures, videos or text files to a cloud service provider, who will then “host” the data on its servers, freeing up your storage space.
It’s so easy to use that some local computer service companies aren’t seeing a demand from customers.
“It hasn’t evolved into something that customers are asking us to help them with,” said owner of Extreme Computer Technologies Tammy Dollish said.
Personal use
Mobile cloud computing services are particularly useful, as mobile devices have very limited storage capacity and processing power. Consumers can access files stored on the cloud via their mobile devices, and bypass having to pay for more memory and a more expensive phone. You can also use the cloud to backup valuable data and serve as a recovery system when your computer or laptop crashes.
Business use
Local businesses are turning to cloud storage solutions for a variety of reasons.
“We use it for our Information Services,” said Major Price, director of information technology at North Central State College. “It reduces expenditures for hardware, software and the need for networking management personnel. It provides an opportunity for cost containment. And we have scalability, as data storage needs increase…We are also looking at hosting for student emails in cloud. It has cost benefits too.”
The institution also uses the cloud for data recovery.
“For hosting services, especially with certain types of data, [the cloud] provides better security, disaster recovery, backup, all of this at a lower cost,” Price said. “With the cost of managing the infrastructure, and our servers on a four year cycle, a cloud provider takes care of all of this. You end up with fixed cost. It ends up saving the institution money.”
Applications
There are lots of ways to take advantage of the various services cloud storage providers offer. Evernote is an app that offers cloud storage for personal and business use, and lets you take snapshots of business cards, people, places and objects, as well as clips from the web.
Online photo-storage provider Picassa lets you upload pictures from your phone as you take them, or on-demand from a computer.
With Google Drive, OneDrive and Dropbox, three cloud providers that offer free and paid services, users can give others access to files. Businesses are using services like these to share documents between departments and for on-the-go use.
Audiobox.fm is a media player that lets you listen to music you’ve stored in the cloud.
Security
Security remains an issue for people not yet convinced that the cloud is all it’s cracked up to be—or that it’s safe enough to freely upload one’s personal data. However, hackers have always had access to home computer files via an internet connection, and for systems without sufficient firewall protection.
For this reason, some institutions aren’t welcoming the cloud with open arms.
“We don’t do much in the cloud because of patient confidentiality,” Steve Ridenour said. The Systems Manager at MedCentral Health System is keeping an eye on it as a possibility in the future.
“It’s definitely something we’ve considered, but right now we’re approaching it very cautiously,” Ridenour said. “Given the changes in healthcare privacy laws, we want to be very cautious.”
Before diving into the freedom that cloud storage offers, vet service providers thoroughly before choosing one. Ideally, the company should have a fairly long history of successfully protecting data. Consumers should also use a strong password and add-on encryption software if necessary.
If this sounds complicated, the bottom line is that to keep your data secure, the movement of the data must be encrypted at every step: before it’s uploaded and while it’s streaming. If your cloud service provider doesn’t offer this level of encryption, turn to an add-on encryption service like boxcryptor.
“It reduces expenditures for hardware, software and the need for networking management personnel,” said Major Price of North Central State College.
