So What Is The Cloud Thing .. Anyway?

So What Is The Cloud Thing Anyway?

So you’ve heard it over and over…”cloud storage”.. “upload to the cloud”..” cloud services”..” stored in the cloud”.. cloud this… and cloud that.. but many still have to wonder what exactly IS the CLOUD? Cloud services and/or using the cloud means, in definition: Storing and/or accessing files or running/accessing programs via the Internet (versus storing or accessing these files or running the programs at your local computer or device). This means the files or the programs themselves are stored on The Internet some place. You see, the files or programs are not solely stored on your computer, tablet, cell phone (or whatever Internet based device your using). Perhaps a copy of those files are stored locally, which means storing them at your device or within your building somewhere but ultimately what is considered their main copy is stored somewhere over/on the Internet. Anytime you store to the cloud, or access the cloud you’re simply accessing what you need or desire on the Internet. Using the cloud always entails using the Internet.

As was said, utilizing the cloud or accessing the cloud simply means you’re accessing the files or using programs that are stored and ran online..not at your local machine/device. You’re probably wondering where on the Internet are all these files or programs stored or ran? Very good question. These files and/or programs are actually stored at large data centers and/or on servers all over the country (and at times throughout the world).  In breaking this down a bit more, consider someone saying they stored something on the cloud. A more specific way of saying this might be that they stored their personal files by sending them to a data-center or to a server by means of the Internet. If a person says they “get it all from the cloud” or “Use the cloud” be it a program, application, or file,  a more precise way to think of this would be to imagine the concept of this person logging-in or automatically accessing these files/programs by pulling them down from a data center or running the program at the server.

One of the benefits of using the cloud/cloud service is that these huge data centers have back-ups of your files should the circumstance occur in one of these severs or hard discs failing. They have multiple backups and recovery protocols in place for these type of situations.  Supposedly, this removes that responsibility from the user. If the user has their files stored on the cloud (photos, videos, documents etc.) the premise is that no local copy is not truly required (however LatestBuzz.info recommends at least one back-up locally/on hand). When running a program on the cloud (stored and ran online) it often takes much of the hardware burden and required processing off of your local device. This is because the program/app is for the most part not only stored  but is also ran at a server some where on the Internet, not on your local machine (or device). In addition, using a cloud to store your files and programs instead of on your computer or at your device requires little to no storage space locally for these purposes.

So if The Internet has been so popular over the last 20 years or more why have cloud services only gained attention over the past four or five years?

1. Internet backbones (the main physical trunk lines and industrial components Internet Service Providers use to send and receive data) have significantly increased their data throughput lately. There is much more bandwidth available to consistently be sending/receiving today than say.. even 10 or 12 years ago.

2. There has been a large increase in the amount of data centers. Within the past six to eight years many more data centers have been built. Now there is much more room (space) to accommodate all the files/programs.

3. Companies and software developers started incorporating online services, online storage facilitation into their operating systems /programs much more starting six or seven years ago. With the realization of higher bandwidth backbones and more data centers being constructed the developers knew things were heading the way of the “cloud”.

How does one access the cloud? Another good question. In two different ways. The device, computer, or program automatically logs-in to the cloud at start-up. The second way is manually logging in. Users get access credentials to cloud accounts by creating log-in credentials when setting up a device or when installing a cloud based program.

LatestBuzz.info hopes you understand what the cloud is now. If this read has enlightened you in some regard please share this on your favorite social network by selecting one of the social media icons to the left or just below …

Posted by Latest Buzz - on Sep 20 2015. Filed under Latest Buzz. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry