Friday 13 January 2012

The Cloud


When we talk about the cloud we are not doing the local weather for Kettering, Corby or Wellingborough ..   the cloud is a bit of a generic term .. there are lots of ways of using the cloud. It’s off site, it’s secure and you don’t have to worry about backing it up and yet the idea of storing your files in a cloud may be just too disconcerting for many people. I mean where are my files actually going? Is there any security protecting my files? Why do it anyway?
At the moment cloud computing is a relative unknown, but, now that a number of global organisations and companies are adopting and offering cloud based services, 2012 could be the year that the cloud goes mainstream
Companies such as Google, Apple and Amazon all now offering cloud-based services for your music your files and information. Google’s latest contribution to cloud services (although a the moment just available to users in the US) recently came out of development and was offered to users as ‘Google Music’.  This Google service means that users can upload and access up to 20,000 songs to the cloud to be accessed by any Android device that they have registered.
Apple’s offering comes iCloud, provides users with both free and paid services to store pictures, documents apps, contacts and music. Amazon offers a more modest service in comparison and more along the lines of  Dropbox by offering 5GB of free cloud based storage to users for their files and backups. 
All of these services will bring cloud-based storage to a much broader audience. i.e you .. due in part to trusting that the service being offered by a large company such as Amazon or Google works. But in effect  the procedures needed to sync information to the cloud require little technical knowledge or skill.

So 2012 will see a dramatic increase in cloud based services in and around Northamptonshire. The next problem that will likely arise for users may not be worrying about what the cloud is or how it all works, but instead which service out of the numerous options to choose?
  Really cloud-based services are still their infancy however, now that the big name companies and brands are pushing their solutions for cloud storage, the transition to using the cloud is will most likely be a swift one.

So this year is set to become the year of the cloud it will change the way we store and manage our personal information and files will ever be the same again. . For more information just ask and we’ll get you in the off the ground before you know it !

5 comments:

  1. The move to cloud computing is part of a general movement called SaaS - software as a service. It essentially means that the old way of running your own infrastructure, buying software to install on local machines and having expensive contracts with data centres to host services are over. There are now thousands of companies who will do all of this in the cloud and just charge you a monthly fee. And if you want to stop using it, most will allow you to export the data to use somewhere else.

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  2. For those who run small businesses, or operate on more than one computer, I think the cloud will be really useful. It's something I've been aware of for the last few months but haven't started to realise its full potential yet.

    It's also great if you want to share documents with others as it saves having to email them across - you (ot they) can update something wherever you are, save it and when you get back home, the updates will sync with your documents.

    With more organisations offering more services and more people using it, cloud computing will really take off in 2012.

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  3. I've just got an iPad and have absolutely no idea what the cloud is all about! well, a bit more now I've read your article!!!!

    Just hope it doesn't rain too much!!!

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  4. This is a good summary of technology that will be the way forward for many of us who simply want full time, on the move access to our stuff

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  5. I have just started to understand 'Clouds' so glad of any help.

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