Loving Technology Every Day

Cloud computing continues to evolve from the basic email storage lockers and file sharing websites of the 90's and early 2000's to a nearly seamless experience. There are many parts of your business that could benefit from cloud storage over your own local storage options, and a few cloud computing concepts can help you figure out how.

Cloud Storage Basics

The most basic part of cloud computing is file storage. It's no different from past concepts of uploading information to an online storage bank, but with many lessons learned and much higher capacity levels per tier of service.

When working with file storage, you have the option to treat a cloud account like a business file server. Just as companies used to pull files from a company server located in an Information Technology (IT) room or one of the main office computer, you can network your business computers to treat an online account like a network drive.

In many cases, higher tiers of service mean being able to store more information and access information at a higher frequency. Visiting online storage is like visiting any other business, so enterprise businesses may need to rely on higher tier services while small businesses and home offices won't be more than a blip on the network traffic radar.

Cloud Applications

Remote access, emulation and virtual machines have led to an even greater development: running applications on a computer across the internet without installing them on the local computer.

There are many ways to accomplish this feat. In the early days of personal computers, people could remotely access another computer through the internet--just like using an old terminal to access a mainframe--to use everything that the computer has to offer.

With emulation and virtual machines, data centers with lots of resources can run programs that operate like individual computers. Any number of virtual computers can be created inside application boxes, and your company can use these systems to represent a business workstation.

This means that workers can keep their older laptops while accessing the business system abroad, or that a hardware failure inside your business won't mean the end of your files on the server. You won't have to buy bigger hard drives to install certain programs because everything is installed in a data center that has far more storage space than most non-tech businesses will ever access.

Contact a data center cloud professional to discuss available service tiers and cloud application options for your business.