The cloud storage is a special service, often provided by hosting companies, that gives you the opportunity to maintain, manage and store your data on a unique online storage.
The price of the services is calculated per monthly consumption, but many storage providers have additional operating expenses. The only threat can come from hackers, but most providers have invested into state-of-art encryption and authentication.
If you are going to buy yourself a cloud storage, you must know that there are three models public, hybrid and private.
Public cloud storage keeps your data in global servers spread across multiple continents. Users pay according to their monthly usage. At the moment, this sector is dominated by Amazon’s, Google and Microsoft’s cloud storage services.
Private Cloud offers you a dedicated server with high-quality protection. These servers are perfect if you require extra customizations, reliability, and flexibility.
Hybrid Cloud, as the name suggests, this is a combination between the private and public cloud. There are many features offered by the hybrid service, which is perfect for businesses. Although, there are many cons with this model, its popularity has grown a lot throughout the years. Unfortunately, there are many management and technical challenges, even though that there are enormous benefits as well.
Private workloads must access the public cloud storage provider, which means that you must always have a strong network connectivity if you don’t wish to experience any glitches. Of course, you can enjoy the benefits of the enterprise-level cloud, which is highly customizable according to the needs of the client.
How the cloud storage works?
When your data is uploaded to the cloud storage, a particular ID Number is assigned. Upon retrieval, the user sends the number to the system, and the content is sent towards the client.
Also, all cloud companies offer state-of-art security protocols, which back up the information precisely, and the security is doubled. As a capital cost-cutting measure many clients choose to use the cloud storage service for DevOps.
Industry Leaders
The current market leaders are the leading corporations Amazon, Google and Microsoft who dominate in the segment of enterprise packages. While the section for small business owners is dominated by Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and EMC.
Advantages of Cloud Storage:
- Synchronization – All cloud services are created in such manner, that the user is enabled to drag-drop his files for easier usage.
- Bandwidth – You can use the cloud storage to upload your files and send a download links to your recipient. This way you will avoid the heavy attachments.
- Accessibility – Fast and easy access to all your files anywhere in the world via internet.
- Accident Recovery – You will have a easy-to-access back-up plan.
Disadvantages of Cloud Storage:
1.Usability: When using the drag-drop feature the original file will disappear from your original device. Copy/Paste to retain it on it’s original location.
2.Bandwidth: Each company that provides cloud services has a bandwidth allowance
3.Data Security: There are certain concerns whether the cloud storage service is as secure as they state.
