If you’ve never heard of cloud storage or you have heard of it but don’t know what it means you may be wondering why you should even be considering it? Well even if you don’t know what it is, it is something that everyone should at least consider.
Picture the scenario
Currently, you probably own a laptop or PC and at least one mobile device. Many of us have a home computing solution and a Smartphone. Some of us have multiple devices in the house including the kid’s tablets and your work computers. No doubt these devices all contain many different files, folders, images, videos, tunes which you wouldn’t want to lose. On any given day something could go wrong with one of our devices. The kids could lose or damage one of their devices, the computer may give up the ghost and stop working and you may inadvertently drop your phone down the toilet. If any of these situations arise it is more than likely that the device and any data on it will be beyond repair and retrieval.
So what do you do when you lose your data?
The short answer is that there is nothing you can do. Sure you can try and retrieve info off your hard drive or try in vain to dry the phone out and get it working again but wouldn’t it be much better to backup all of your valuable files to a safe place? Now you can get USBs storage devices and external hard drives which allow you to transfer your data to somewhere safe as a backup but what about having a cloud based solution to store everything that would remain accessible at all times and from any device? That is exactly what a cloud storage solution offers. All of your data is stored securely in the cloud or, to explain it better, a network of servers.
Choosing a cloud provider
Firstly you need to choose cloud providers. There are so many available but if you are just looking to store a small amount of data then one of the free long term plans offered by many providers is the perfect starting point. Once you have chosen your provider you register for an account and then start saving your files. If you download the app to your phone and the software to your PC you can store everything in one place which is accessible from any device.
Working with files in the cloud
What’s great about the cloud is that, unlike an online backup, you can access your data from anywhere and work with it, when you are finished with it the file will be saved and backed up across all devices. You can share your files with others so if you have a particular file that you want more than one person to see and access you are able to provide them with an access link so that they have the same access as you
Is the data secure when stored in the cloud?
This is the question asked by many and the short answer is that as long as you choose a reputable provider they all tend to use the same security precautions. This means that data is encrypted using a very secure format – encryption means jumbling up a document into a language that no one understands. As well as being encrypted to avoid the danger of data being lost due to a technical fault your files are usually backed up on multiple servers. If one goes down there are still other backups of your data.
How do I choose an online storage solution?
This is probably the most time-consuming part of the process. How do you choose a provider? Well, you can highlight a few things that you are looking for – that might be a free plan with ample space and a privacy policy that means only you can see the data. Once you have looked at whose features meet your requirements you can shortlist and then decide on the cloud storage provider that best suits your needs. Next, it’s just a matter of signing up to an account, getting familiar with the site and starting to protect your precious images, your hard earned collection of music and your all important documents.
