What is “The Cloud” and should I be using it?

So what is this cloud thing I keep hearing about?  It sounds kind of scary to have my data and information stored somewhere other than my computer.  Couldn’t someone get it?  Isn’t it more at risk?

Think of the cloud as water.  You turn on your faucet and water appears.  You flush the toilet and water appears.  You take a shower and water appears.  The faucet, the toilet, the shower, and all of the other ways you get your water – those could be the same thing as various devices that you get your information from in the cloud.  You don’t create your own water.  You don’t store it.  You don’t do anything to it really – other than use it.  You turn it on – you get water.  Your water source is also protected.  So if your information is stored in the cloud – you have access to that information from all of your devices – iPhone, iPad, Droid, Desktop, laptop, etc…and it ‘s all protected and secured.

The advantages and benefits of this are enormous:

• The cloud frees you from the responsibility of securing and protecting your data.
• You don’t’ buy expensive software anymore – maybe an inexpensive app at worst.  Your cost of using hi-tech computing significantly decreases.
• Access.  You or whomever you give permission can access any or all of your information from anywhere on any device.  Collaboration just became very user friendly and cheap.
• You don’t have to worry about updates – most updates in the cloud are automatic – you don’t even know it happened.
• Levels the playing field.  If you are a small business you now have the same access to the same tools as the big guys do.  Since you only pay for what you need – it’s affordable.  Since it’s affordable, you can now begin to compete with the companies that used to have the edge on technology.  Sweet.
• Scalable.  You can add to what you need – when you need it.  No need to buy something you won’t use – just use what you need at the moment.  When you need more – pay for more.  We have never been able to do this before the cloud.

Yes – you should be using the cloud.  I’m sitting here right now with virtually no information stored on my hard drive.  I pay a few dollars a month for access to literally millions of dollars worth of really cool tools.

If you need help or have questions give us a call at 678.642.8281.

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Dennis Lynn

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