"The Cloud"

What is a cloud? And no, I don’t mean those puffy white things you see in the sky.

Source: (Me) Holly Marquardt

Clouds, or cloud computing are digital technology parts of the internet that allow us to store and access documents and data.

There are different types of clouds out there… let me explain it with an analogy. I'll use one of my favourite things ever... Pizza!

“Made at Home Pizza” is like building your own cloud. Just like making a pizza from scratch, when building your own cloud, you have control over everything! You can customize it to just the way you want it! However, it also requires you to do all of the work yourself. That means you need to have all the required skills yourself. It is also the option that takes the most time and effort.

Source: Holly Marquardt

“Frozen Pizza” is like a private cloud service. Just like a frozen pizza, most of the hard work is already done for you. You only need to do a few things yourself. You’re in charge for some of it. However, prices are fixed, and options are somewhat limited.

Source: Holly Marquardt

“Delivered Pizza” is like a managed cloud option. Just like delivered pizza, with a managed cloud, basically everything is done for you, no real skills are required and it’s delivered right to you. However, choices are pretty much fixed.

Source: Holly Marquardt and Zoraiz Rehman

“Dined Out Pizza” is like the public cloud. Just like eating out, with a public cloud, the very least amount of effort and hassle is required from you. You can just concentrate on your own content and don’t have to worry about anything else. However, it has fixed choices and the least amount of customizability. It really depends just on what “restaurant” you end up choosing.

Source: KilkennyCityOnline

Now that you are aware of the different types of clouds out there, it's time to discuss the Pros and Cons to using Cloud Computing

Pros:

Cost Effective- Cost per Head – cloud hosting services require minimum cost. As a user, you only pay for the amount of storage you choose to use.

Accessibility –Clouds allow you to access data and documents from any device in any place. This is especially great if more than one person needs access

Secure – Don’t have to worry about your laptop crashing and you losing everything- everything will still be “up in the cloud” allowing for you to still access it

No hardware – no hardware is required from yourself to keep your data

Scalability – Clouds are capable of handling a growing amount of people and growing number of documents and data.

Cons:

Control- or lack their of. Limited choice and customizability…Unless you made your own cloud.

Security- Although it is far less likely that servers will go down, than your computer crashing, it is still a possibility. In that case, you could be in trouble if you don’t have t backed up.

Privacy- just becareful, ensure you are with a reliable cloud computing service- you wouldn’t want your documents/data to get into the wrong hands.

Intellectual property – again, be careful ensure you are with a reliable cloud computing service. Protect your property. Make sure you read all the fine print, add your own fine print, and maybe even expect to pay more.

Source: SkyCentral Now that you know a few basics about cloud computing, will you choose to use it?