Welcome to DR's note, your weekly dose of knowledge from the Circuit Stitch.

This week we discuss and discover, What is the Cloud?

    So what is the cloud?  The simplest answer I can give is this, the cloud is someone else's computer.  Now by someone else's computer, it could be Google, Microsoft, basically any place that host servers that is storing your data in the cloud.  When you hear the term server, it is not some fancy piece of equipment that is foreign and unknown, it is just a computer that is running an operating system geared towards whatever its main function is.  So if you have a server that is for emails, then you will run an OS (operating system) with software gear to do the sending the receiving of emails.  Then, if you have a Cloud server, you would run an OS designed to save information on it. 

    The cloud server is just glorified online storage, basically a NAS (network attached storage) that is attached to the internet and not just your network at home or at work.  A NAS at home or at work is only able to accessible by being on that network or connecting to that network via VPN.  But the biggest difference is that when you have a NAS, then you are in control of the physical device that stores your data.  You have to take care of it, check to see if it is still functioning properly, etc.  With cloud storage, all of that is handed over to the cloud storage provider to take care of.  They have redundancies to ensure that your data doesn't get erased (by them, not by you, if  you erase it then it's gone) or lost.  Plus, the convenience of cloud storage is that it can be accessed anywhere you have a connection.  Cloud storage is also pretty inexpensive compared to the upfront cost of a NAS, decent NAS units could cost anywhere from $300-$1000.  While cloud storage is either free or maybe a buck a month.  To me, using the cloud is a no brainier.

    I do think it's worth mentioning that if you have copious amounts of data, you might want to invest in a good external hard drive, preferably an SSD (solid state drive) kind.  That way It could help save on cloud cost, and you can take it anywhere, you don't need an internet connection.  You just plug the USB (universal serial bus) into your computer, then you can move over what you need to help clear up space. 

 I hope this has helped you understand what Cloud storage is, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask away.  Also, if you have any topics you'd like me to discus here, please leave a comment, I want to know what you want to know more about.  Thank you and have a great week.