Lately you may have seen it in a television commercial or other form of advertisement where Microsoft or Google talks of the "cloud". I have had a lot of questions on this as well concerning this new concept. I currently read an article in LJS a week ago that compared email to the "cloud". While emails are stored on a server for us to access anytime, it isn't entirely a "cloud" concept. The cloud concept centers around the fact you don't have to download any applications on your phone, pc, or laptop to create documents such as spreadsheets, word documents, etc. You simply need a laptop, PC, or a smart phone that connects to the "Cloud server". You may wonder how this is beneficial for you as well as some of the pitfalls as well.
The benefits are you don't have to worry about installing any programs on your computer. This obviously saves on hard drive space. If your system crashes and you have to reformat, your documents are safely stored on the server. Licensing is also easier if you are a business. No need to buy 10 licenses for your company when you have the cloud service. All you need is an internet connection.
The pitfalls are security. If it is a sensitive document for your company and the cloud server is compromised then you have no idea who has your documents. Also, the cloud providers such as Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, etc. use this information to target advertising to you.
Overall, I would say it is a very useful tool and the pros outweigh the cons. The idea of being able to access a document from any laptop is certainly a convenience. For the most part I have heard these cloud servers are very secure.
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