What Is the Cloud?
With more services offering to store your songs, photos, and other data in the “cloud,” you are likely wondering exactly what is the cloud. The cloud is something that you’ve already been partially using for quite a long time. At its most basic level, the cloud is another name for a company’s bank of web servers that aren’t in your home.
When you save some data – say, a song in mp3 format – you have three choices. One is to save the mp3 to your own computer’s hard drive. A second is to save it to a removable medium like a CD or to an mp3 player, rather than your computer. The third option is to save it to the cloud. This means you’d save the song to another company’s servers, with the idea that you’ll be able to access the song file whenever you want and from wherever you want.
So when you consider what is the cloud, it’s not a web version of a free-floating fog; it’s just a server. However, that server is at a company’s headquarters or server farm rather than in your home. Another example is webmail. If you’ve ever had a free email account through one of the search engines, for instance, where you could access that email from any computer, that data was stored in the cloud.
Are There Reasons to Use or Not Use the Cloud?
One great advantage to using the cloud is that you can access the data from any computer. You’re not limited to just one computer that has specific software on it. Another advantage is that if something happens to your computer, you can go to the cloud and get a copy of all your data there. In these cases, when you ask yourself what is the cloud, think of the cloud as a massive backup drive.
However, the cloud has raised security concerns. All it would take would be one person to hack into the cloud, and you’d find all your data at risk of being lost or corrupted. When considering what is the cloud, you might want to look at it as a temporary storage room that isn’t always locked and private.
For now, try to avoid putting highly sensitive data out in the cloud. Make sure all your passwords are strong. When you consider what is the cloud, remember that it is a piece of computer hardware that people can break into.
The cloud is not an abstract place – the name just makes it seem that way. If anyone asks you what is the cloud, now you’ll know exactly what to say.