T101.5 - Cloud Services
"Cloud" -- a word with too many meanings and connotations for the layman to decipher.
So many questions...
I'm going to break down Cloud services into 4 Categories:
So many questions...
- Which cloud services do what?
- Are the all the same?
- Which ones over lap others?
- Which ones are substitutes and which ones are compliments?
- How do they all work and what the benefits and draw backs are there with each service?
- Does the company owning or hosting it matter?
- etc etc etc...
I'm going to break down Cloud services into 4 Categories:
- Cloud Drives for Data Storage and File Sharing
- Cloud Back-up Services
- Cloud Software
- Cloud Based PCs (aka Virtual Machines)
1) Cloud Drives for Data Storage and File Sharing
The word "Drive" in Cloud Drive is misleading. The word "drive" conjures up thoughts of your hard drive, an external hard drive, a USB thumb drive, a CD Rom drive or a floppy drive and all of those are incorrect thoughts. In this case a "drive" is actually much less than all of those because a drive is just a "folder" that you might store on your hard drive, and external drive or any of those other drives. Yes, your cloud drive is just a folder on your computer, that gets synced with a folder on a foreign computer via the internet for backup and sharing purposes.
In Layman's Terms -- There are 3 primary components to a cloud "drive".
- A Local Folder --- A folder gets designated on your computer as the folder that represents your cloud drive. Any data files you put in that folder are said to be stored on your "cloud drive" (even though they are just in a folder on your computer).
- A Remote Folder -- A folder gets designated on a foreign computer that is connected to the internet somewhere in the world other than your own home/office, and that folder is going to be a mirror image of the folder on your computer.
- A small software program is loaded on your computer which periodically checks the contents of your folder, and when something changes in your folder, it uploads a copy of your new file to the folder on the foreign computer.
Pretty simple huh?
For those with some technical background or those wanting irrelevant info, these cloud services are just FTP services run on a schedule. BUT they have some nice file sharing and distribution features on the server side that can not easily be duplicated with your own ftp backup to an offsite server.
=== Access to your Data -- How and Why? ===
You can access files on your cloud drive via a website associated with your cloud drive service provider. That website may also be called a web portal since it is giving you access to your data. Your web portal would be accessed by opening a website in any browser and logging into the website.
- If you stored pictures in your cloud drive you could access those from anywhere in the world via a web browser.
- If you stored word documents or spreadsheets that were reference items, like maybe your recipes, on your cloud drive, you could access those via any web browser
=== Data Sharing ===
If you stored images on your cloud drive, you might just want to share that file with your relatives, so they could see all images all the time. If you stored your recipes on your drive, you might want to share those too. You would share those by logging into your web portal and designating other members of the same service as having permissions to view your files.
=== Multiple Computers ===
If you have a computer at home and another computer at work, you may want to share certain files related to work on both computers. In this situation, when the small program on your computer looks for changes in your local files, it also looks for new files and newer copies of existing files on the cloud drive, and it brings those new copies down to your computer for storage and access. NOTE: It does not bring parts of files down... it brings complete files down and overwrites any existing files. this is a distinction that becomes far more relevant later.
=== Cloud Drive Service Providers ===
One of the first in this market and one of the most well known is DropBox.
Dropbox was one of the first cloud storage and sharing service. Other providers who have been around a while are SugarSynch, GoogleDrive, OneDrive and others.
2) Cloud Back-up Services
A Cloud Drive for Data Storing and Sharing, as described above is in fact also a cloud backup service. So all items listed for that category are part of this category too.
BUT what sets this category apart is the "scope" with which full cloud backup services back up your data.
True cloud Backup Services are typically designed less for sharing your data and syncing your data and more for just backing it up and keeping multiple revisions of each file.
As the industry has matured, many cloud Backup Services have tried to expand their product to also be considered drive services from a remote access and sharing perspective. There are always trade-offs to each service offering and it is not necessarily easy to figure out who does what, and what you actually "need", with the later being a key most people overlook.
Cloud Backup Providers who can access all levels of files on your machine for backup Include:
You might think if a backup company could literally backup every file on your computer that would be a copy of your hard drive, and unfortunately that is not the case. While all the "files" are there with these backups, there are certain types of data and configuration info that is not and can not be saved with this method to create a true bit for bit backup of your computer.
BUT what sets this category apart is the "scope" with which full cloud backup services back up your data.
- Cloud Drive >> One Folder -- all your data must be in that folder
- Cloud Backup Service >> Any and all folders on your computer can be backed up, as you wish
True cloud Backup Services are typically designed less for sharing your data and syncing your data and more for just backing it up and keeping multiple revisions of each file.
As the industry has matured, many cloud Backup Services have tried to expand their product to also be considered drive services from a remote access and sharing perspective. There are always trade-offs to each service offering and it is not necessarily easy to figure out who does what, and what you actually "need", with the later being a key most people overlook.
Cloud Backup Providers who can access all levels of files on your machine for backup Include:
- Crashplan, Spider Oak, Carbonite and many others
You might think if a backup company could literally backup every file on your computer that would be a copy of your hard drive, and unfortunately that is not the case. While all the "files" are there with these backups, there are certain types of data and configuration info that is not and can not be saved with this method to create a true bit for bit backup of your computer.
3) Cloud Software
Cloud Software is just a website in which you log in and you create and store data.
Often times you can download copies of your data, but that data will have been reformatted from their data format to a data format that can be viewed or queried by you.
- Quickbooks Online and Quicken Online are examples of Cloud Software.
- Facebook and Evernote are also in fact examples of Cloud Software.
Often times you can download copies of your data, but that data will have been reformatted from their data format to a data format that can be viewed or queried by you.
4) Cloud Based PC's
Cloud based PC's also known as "Virtual Machines", "Virtual PCs", and 'Virtual Desktops" have become popular since the mid 2000s at mid size and large companies.
You log onto a PC or Mac or any other computer that has a web browser and you can login to your Virtual PC (some/most systems will likely require you to download a small software application called a "software client" that will actually give you access to your virtual machine).
You go to a specific web address or enter a set of specific credentials into your client software, and whala! in a window on your computer you are looking at the desktop of a remote pc. If you maximize that window, you may not realize you are not working on your own machine.
This type of service really helps folks keep their onsite IT costs down, as there is little to nothing of relevance loaded on individual computers at the users location. These virtual computers are managed in bulk by a professional/remote staff who typically offers help desk hours and round the clock monitoring. These virtual computers are not individual computers, but rather they are just folders on very large computers that have been partitioned into private "drives" (and there again is a reference to a drive that is just a folder on a computer).
This is a little outside the scope of use applicable for most Sole Proprietors, but it is an option that may be worth considering if/when you want or need multiple work stations and you aren't that handy with troubleshooting computers.
There is a separate link on the Technology Menu Dedicated to Virtual Machines which has basically this same information. For an example of pricing, please see: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/virtual-machines/windows/
You log onto a PC or Mac or any other computer that has a web browser and you can login to your Virtual PC (some/most systems will likely require you to download a small software application called a "software client" that will actually give you access to your virtual machine).
You go to a specific web address or enter a set of specific credentials into your client software, and whala! in a window on your computer you are looking at the desktop of a remote pc. If you maximize that window, you may not realize you are not working on your own machine.
This type of service really helps folks keep their onsite IT costs down, as there is little to nothing of relevance loaded on individual computers at the users location. These virtual computers are managed in bulk by a professional/remote staff who typically offers help desk hours and round the clock monitoring. These virtual computers are not individual computers, but rather they are just folders on very large computers that have been partitioned into private "drives" (and there again is a reference to a drive that is just a folder on a computer).
This is a little outside the scope of use applicable for most Sole Proprietors, but it is an option that may be worth considering if/when you want or need multiple work stations and you aren't that handy with troubleshooting computers.
There is a separate link on the Technology Menu Dedicated to Virtual Machines which has basically this same information. For an example of pricing, please see: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/virtual-machines/windows/