AN OVERVIEW OF CLOUD COMPUING

I remember the first time i heard about the cloud was icloud. It was fascinating for me, because how would someone save something in the cloud? Well at that point in time I thought my pictures, messages, contact and notes where stored in the literal cloud, and it was something I kept wondering how it’s been done. At that point I didn’t know that my contact, messages, notes and pictures where known as data. I merely refer to data as megabytes and gigabyte which is been given by my cell phone network provider and the amount of space my phone memory or memory card consumes

When I came to know about cloud, it was more astonishing and as I made my research and went through the learning process about cloud, I came to understand what cloud is all about, it functions and uses. Let’s talk about an overview of cloud to get the basic knowledge of cloud computing.

You might wonder what cloud is all about. Well, think of the cloud as a disk drive or hard drive that is own by a company like Microsoft or google, which stores all your files in a remote location, which can be called a server Farm. The cloud makes it possible to have access to your photos, videos or documents from any computer and sometimes a Smart phone or a tablet with an internet connection. Many of us make use of cloud computing every day with site like Facebook, Netflix or Gmail.

Let’s define cloud computing. Cloud computing simply means storing and accessing data and programs over the internet instead of the computer’s hard drive. Cloud computing can also be defined as hardware and software service from a provider over the internet.

The name cloud computing is influenced by cloud symbols, which is often been used to represent the service and networking infrastructure that makes up the internet as “the cloud” was often use as a slang in the world of tech. As more computing process moved to the servers and infrastructure part of the internet, people started making use of the word “the cloud” as a short hand to express where the computing process was taking place. Today people widely accept the term “the cloud” for this style of computing.

Examples of cloud computing you are probably using are;

GOOGLE DRIVE

   Google Drive is a purely cloud computing services. The storage is a free web-bases processor. One perk of Google Drive is the fact that it users do not need to download their project(s) to there computer. But can make necessary changes by editing and saving on the internet. Another interesting thing about the google drive is that several users are able to edit a document at the same time, with changes been visible by everyone in real-time. Most Google service can be classified cloud computing such as Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Map and so on. Google drive is not only accessible through the use of desktop computer, but also tablet and smart phones.

Apple iCloud

      The icloud is a computing services created by apple. Users are able to store, backup, and synchronize their mail, contact, calendar, photos, music, document and much more. Unlike Google Drive which merely requires internet access, iCloud requires an iOS, iPadOS, Mac OS or windows device (window users have to install the icloud control panel). The icloud computing application is more driven towards individuality rather that group work just like google drive.

Drop Box

      Operated by Drop Box inc, the service which is simple reliable for file-sync and can store files. It enables users to share certain file and folders across the internet, synching any change that are made in other to provide an opportunity for group collaboration.

Amazon Drive

     The cloud drive service was created by Amazon in 2011. The file which is been uploaded using a computer can be access via the internet. One of the positive of Amazon Drive can be found when a user wants to store large files.

Microsoft Azure

      The Azure cloud computing service has been regarded as one of the greatest cloud services platforms accessible, when you look at Microsoft’s extensive suite of services. The Microsoft Azure extensive list of offered services is sufficient to meet the demands of any company or organization in any sector.

Microsoft Azure cloud service was first published in 2010, and since then it has showed that it can be a reliable solution for businesses which are trying to digitally change. One of the interesting things about Microsoft Azure cloud computing service is that you man operate service on the cloud or mix them with any of your current infrastructures.


The cloud computing has taken away or reduce the presence of a physical storage which in turn safe cost. Since the cloud service providers mostly put their service on a pay as you go, which is cost effective for users. And the companies or organization don’t need to always update or maintain their own servers as the cloud vendor are willing to do that.

Now small business that might not be able to afford their own internal infrastructure can now outsource this infrastructure. The cloud has also made it easier for companies to operate internationally, because employees and customer can access same file from any location.