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What is The Cloud?

“The cloud” is one of those trendy tech terms a lot of people use but can’t clearly define. What is the cloud? When do you encounter it? How can it benefit your business? If you use any kind of social media or online data drive, you’re already using the cloud; you just may not realise it.

So what exactly is the cloud?

The first thing you should understand about the cloud is that it is not a physical thing. The cloud is a network of servers and each server has a different function.

Some servers use computing power to run applications or deliver a service. For example, Adobe has moved its creative services to the cloud. You can no longer buy the Creative Suite (Photoshop, InDesign, etc.) in a box set. Instead, you must pay a monthly subscription fee to use each individual service. That’s why it’s now called the “Adobe Creative Cloud” instead.

Other servers in the network are responsible for storing data. For example, when you take a picture on your smartphone, it is stored on your phone’s internal memory drive. However, when you upload the photos to Instagram, you are uploading it to the cloud.

So remember:

“The cloud” is a network of servers. Some servers provide an online service, like Adobe Creative Cloud, and others allow you to store and access data, like Instagram or Dropbox.

Chances are, you encounter the cloud daily – from Google Drive to OneDrive to iCloud to Evernote. Any time you store information without using up your phone’s internal data, you’re storing information on the cloud.

What are the benefits to working in the cloud?

The business decision to “move to the cloud” is often financially motivated. Companies used to have to buy their own hardware equipment, the value of which depreciated over time. But now with the cloud, companies only have to pay for what they use. This model makes it easy to quickly scale use up or down.

That’s why the cloud is such a big deal. It doesn’t just let you upload data, but it also helps businesses save thousands of dollars a year. Where in the past, people would run applications or programs from software downloaded on a physical computer or server in their building, cloud computing allows people to access the same kinds of applications through the internet.

Working on the cloud allows your business to be nimble, efficient and cost-effective. If your business needs urgent access to more resources, it can scale quickly in the cloud. Conversely, if it needs to downscale or reduce resources, it can do so just as easily. Because of this scalability, the cloud’s elasticity is often compared to that of a rubber band.

How big is the cloud?

No one knows exactly how much space can be provided by cloud-based services like Google, Amazon or Facebook. However, it’s estimated that the cloud can store about 1 Exabyte. An exabyte of memory can hold the same amount of data as 4.2 million Macbook Pro hard drives. That’s a lot of storage!

How secure is the cloud?

The cloud is great for storing non-sensitive information, like to-do lists on platforms like Evernote. But unsurprisingly, the idea of storing personal information somewhere “up in the cloud” makes many people wary. Nevertheless, some companies, like Google, automatically encrypt data for paid cloud storage service users.