Here you are, working at your computer. Huh, what’s that noise?
SUDDENLY, A METEORITE CRASHES TO EARTH (specifically, into your living room). Sadly, your computer is no more,
but thankfully, all your music, photos, and important documents are stored online—in
the cloud. When something is stored in the cloud, that means it’s stored on internet
servers instead of on your computer. It’s like having an extra hard drive—one that
you can access anywhere and anytime you’re connected to the internet. In the past, you only had a home computer and the software you installed on it.
Now you can take your files anywhere thanks to cloud-based applications called web apps,
which run inside your internet browser. A web app that you may already use is Google
Docs. It’s free, you don’t have to install anything to use it, and it allows you to create
several different types of projects. You can access everything that you create in Google
Docs from any computer or device with an internet connection. Since you only need a connected
device to access the cloud, you can take your music, photos, and videos with you wherever
you go. For instance, if you take a photo on your smartphone and upload it to a cloud-based
photo storage service like Flickr or Picasa, you can access that photo on any of your other
devices, on your computer, or even on your TV.
You can share your vacation photos with friends and family while you’re still on vacation. With your photos and other multimedia
stored in the cloud, you’ll never have to worry about losing them to a computer malfunction—
or rogue meteorite – ever again. Storing files in the cloud is a great way to protect
your important files from accidents, viruses, and more. You can use cloud-based storage
services like Mozy or Carbonite to back up the contents of your computer. These services
run continually and back up automatically, so you will always have the most recent versions
of your files stored in secure online servers. If something bad happens to your computer,
you can easily transfer your backup files from your storage service to another device.
So, what are you waiting for? No matter how you use your computer, tablet, or smartphone,
the cloud has something to offer you. Whether it’s checking your email when you’re traveling,
backing up the photos and music that you love, or using web apps to work in different locations,
the cloud can—and already is—making your life, and the technology in it, more manageable.