What does the term "The Cloud" really mean?

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Welcome to the 1st in a series of Tech Savvy Basics which will give explanations to common tech terms for those who did not grow up with tech, or are newly starting with it and have all this jargon thrown at them.

You may be starting an online business or side hustle and are not sure what you doing, or meant to be doing.

What does "The Cloud" really mean

The cloud is a term created by someone, and I don't know who, used to refer to data (aka files, documents, databases, customer relationship management data etc, etc.). If it's an electronic piece of data it needs to be stored somewhere.

For most, we need to store our files, our documents, in a cloud storage option.

So what the means is the file is actually saved on another computer somewhere in the world. To get to that other computer from your device it travels through data waves, very similar to phones connect to phone towers, TV's connect to TV Towers, and bluetooth devices connect to other bluetooth devices. Because the mechanism of the connection and transferring of files is unseen it is said to be "in the Cloud".

Storage Options

If you store all your files and data on your desktop computer or laptop, for example, and the device is stolen or destroyed in a file it is gone for good - and so are your files and data.

However, if you use your desktop computer or laptop to connect via the internet to a 'cloud' storage device and save your files there, you data is safe. As soon as you replace your desktop computer and/or laptop you can download your files from the cloud storage location and keep on working.

The popular names in cloud storage are (and this is just a few options);

• Microsoft OneDrive
• Google Drive
• iCloud
• Dropbox

You may have heard of others, and that's great.

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Have a great day and look out for more Tech Tips posts soon.