Hidden behind the cloud service system is a very complex computer network A where user resources are stored remotely. Now you don't need to save all your files to HDD, you can just copy them to a remote, so-called cloud service, while you will have the opportunity to extract them at any time you need, regardless of your place of residence, the main thing is that there is Internet access.

In addition, they will be available not only to the user himself, but to everyone with whom he wants to share these files. The earnings of cloud service holders are that they rent or sell places in the cloud.

How it all began

At this time, you can save files in the cloud that will remain available on the Internet for a long period. While you are watching videos on YouTube, or photos on Instagram, Facebook - you are using the cloud service. Even such famous mail servers how Gmail uses cloud computing in their work. The principle of the cloud service is that instead of installing the program on your computer, you will work in a web interface that displays data from the cloud storage.

A file in the cloud will be available to everyone at the same time, like YouTube video clips, or, if you wish, only for limited use, like in Dropbox. The earnings of cloud service holders are that they rent them out or sell a place in the cloud.

Once upon a time, back in the early winter of 2006, the future Dropbox developer found himself in a very uncomfortable situation. On a trip from Boston to New York State, he took his laptop with him to do some work on the road, but as it turned out, he left the USB flash drive at home, which contained all the necessary information. That is how he came up with the idea of ​​creating a convenient cloud storage, which would have the ability to synchronize files between devices. After Dropbox saw the light of the day, its popularity became huge, to the point that many famous companies wanted to develop the same storage of their own. So, subsequently, were created Google Drive, Microsoft SkyDrive, Amazon Cloud Drive, Apple iCloud and Yandex.Disk.

The user must be aware of the fact that by placing his file in the cloud service, he partially loses control over it. You need to be aware that by trusting your content to the repository, the worst that can happen is the transfer of the file to a third party, or its loss. A situation may also arise when the user cannot delete the information posted by him and it will continue to be stored in the cloud for years.

Please note that in user agreement, which you view before you start working with your account, most companies indicate their obligations regarding the protection of copyright and personal information. However, in any situation, the user is not protected from unscrupulous employees, or unauthorized hacking. Often companies indicate the possibility of full or partial use of the information provided to them, but usually these points simply remain unread.

The main advantages of the cloud service

But still, today it will be very difficult to imagine a comfortable use of the network without cloud services. Storing data on a hard drive has become completely unnecessary. Now information is always available at any time and with different devices and you can work with her both individually and in groups. The only requirement is internet access.

A lot of companies are sure that the future belongs to cloud services. Google and some more major manufacturers began to release cloud netbooks running under Chrome OS. Google even put forward a proposal to completely refuse to install programs on a PC and suggests using only web services through a browser.

Today, it is simply unthinkable to imagine the operation of the Internet network without cloud services, probably, it would be boring, and users would not be able to share information efficiently and quickly. Everyone is already accustomed to saving their music, videos and other files in the cloud service and getting instant access to the files we need at any time without first downloading them to the desktop. Very soon, according to experts, cloud computing will make interactive content available to us, the display of which will be available on any screen, even on a smartphone.

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Any PC user who stores tons of information on his hard drive, one way or another, is faced with such a concept as cloud services. This is a very interesting development of the last decade, which turned some basic concepts about storing, using or processing data upside down. True, not everyone clearly understands how it all works.

Cloud services: what is it? Main varieties

For some reason, most users believe that the so-called cloud is something like a voluminous storage of information. This is not entirely true. By and large, the entire system of the service functioning is built precisely on such principles, which involve accessing remote servers. However, several main categories should be clearly distinguished.

If we give the simplest classification, we can say that cloud services are:

• repositories of user and other files;
• remote game services;
• antivirus services;
• web-based tools.

Despite the fact that they are all somewhat similar to each other, there are still some main differences that can be distinguished, which will be discussed further.

Cloud storage service

In the simplest sense, a cloud service is nothing more than allocated disk space on remote server, where the user can save his files and folders, download them again to his computer, perform simple actions to manage them, or open general access so that someone else can use them.

Roughly speaking, in fact, this is such a remote hard drive. The allocated space that can be used for free, depending on the owner of the service, can vary quite widely. On average, this figure fluctuates around 25-30 GB. You will have to pay for more. This is justified for businesses or for those who store music or video files that take up a lot of space.

Among the best known and most popular services the following can be distinguished:

• built into Windows systems latest generations OneDrive (formerly SkyDrive);
• Dropbox
• Google Drive;
• Mail.Ru cloud;
• Yandex Disk, etc.

Today, many companies provide such services, however, speaking of cloud technologies, one cannot ignore other aspects of their application and use.

Antivirus Services

At the present stage of development of protection tools, which are presented in the form of anti-virus software, cloud technologies have begun to be actively used in this area.

by the most simple example their implementations can be called the popular Panda Cloud Antivirus. How it works? If a threat is suspected to have entered the system, for example, when downloading a file from the Internet, the scanner does not save it to the hard drive, but even before that sends it to the Sandbox, which, in fact, is the same cloud in which analyzes a suspicious object. And only after that permission is given or a ban on its preservation is established.

Interaction with cloud services through the web interface

Working with cloud services can also be represented in the form of user interaction with software of a certain type through a web interface when connected to a server via the Internet. The bottom line is this: the application is not installed on the user's computer, but on a remote server. If you want to edit the same office documents hosted in the cloud, it is the server program that is launched, but only as a web application. The user in the browser can edit the file in the same way as if it were the same MS Office installed directly on the local computer.

The file is also saved on the remote server where it was originally placed. In some services, there is the possibility of simultaneous access and editing, when several users participate in the process itself. At the same time, changes in the document are displayed to all users connected to the editor in real time. The advantages of this approach are obvious, because in stationary versions office applications this is impossible to achieve.

Game services

Cloud gaming service (Cloud Gaming) is also one of the varieties of such technologies. The essence of its use is that the online game software is initially installed on a remote server, and when a gamer accesses the game, it can be partially downloaded to the user's computer.

These technologies are divided into two areas:

• streaming of a part of the game in the form of files necessary for its instant launch (File Streaming), which is approximately 5% of the total size;
• streaming video processing (Video Streaming) - hosting and processing of all game content directly on the server of the owner of the service.

The first type was previously represented by services such as Utomik and Kalydo, which have already sunk into oblivion, while the second type is developing more dynamically and is represented by such giants as Playkey, LiquidSky, OnLive and many others. True, in most cases, any cloud service for games implies a fee for using a special access key (PlayKey) or purchasing game resources (LiquidSky). But with this approach, you can run the game from any device (computers, laptops, tablets, smartphones, game consoles).

conclusions

Based on the foregoing, we can conclude that cloud services are not only handy tool to save your own information, but also an excellent means of managing it, working with a variety of programs without physically installing them on your own terminal, simultaneous access and editing of files and, of course, huge opportunities in the development of the entertainment industry. And these are just the main directions in which cloud technologies are currently developing. If we take into account the unification of the computing capabilities of computers connected to the World Wide Web at some point, the prospects for the development and use of such services look very tempting.

To exchange files between computers and mobile gadgets, cables and flash drives are no longer needed. If the devices have Internet access, files can "fly" between them "on the cloud". More precisely, they can “settle” in cloud storage, which is a collection of servers scattered around the world (combined into one virtual cloud server), where users place their data for free or paid. In the cloud, files are stored in exactly the same way as on a computer hard drive, but are available not from one, but from different devices that can connect to it.

Every second or third Internet user has already taken the technology cloud storage data into service and enjoys using it, but someone is still saved by flash drives. After all, not everyone knows about this possibility, and some simply cannot decide which service to choose and how to use it. Well, let's figure it out together.

What are cloud storages from the user's point of view and how they work

If you look through the eyes of an inexperienced user, cloud storage is a common application. All it does is create a folder on the computer under its own name. But not simple. Everything that you put into it is simultaneously copied to the same cloud-based Internet server and becomes available from other devices. The size of this folder is limited and can grow within the limits of the disk space allocated to you (from 2 GB on average).

If the cloud storage application is running and the computer ( mobile gadget) is connected to the global network, the data on the hard drive and in the cloud are synchronized in real time. At battery life, and also when the application is not running, all changes are saved only in the local folder. When the machine is connected to the Internet, access to the storage becomes possible, including through a browser.

Files and folders uploaded to the cloud are full-fledged web objects, the same as any content of Internet sites and ftp storages. You can link to them and share links with other people, even those who do not use this service. But only those who you yourself have allowed to download or see an object from your storage will be able to. In the cloud, your data is hidden from prying eyes and securely protected with a password.

The majority of cloud services are additional functionality- file viewer, built-in document editors, screenshot tools, etc. This plus the amount of space provided and creates the main differences between them.

— a cloud storage service that needs no introduction Windows users. Still, because in latest releases this OS (in the “top ten”) it really climbs on top of everything on the screen, as it is set to autorun by default.

For Windows users, the advantage of the Microsoft OneDrive service over its counterparts is, perhaps, only one - it does not need to be installed. Also, you do not need to create a separate account for it - to enter the cloud, just enter your data account Microsoft.

The owner of one Microsoft OneDrive account provides 5 GB of free disk space to store any information. To get extra volume, you have to pay extra. The maximum is 5 TB and costs 3,399 rubles per year, however, this package includes not only disk space, but also Office application 365 (home release). More democratic tariff plans are 1 TB (2,699 rubles per year - storage and Office 365 personal) and 50 GB (140 rubles per month - only storage).

Additional features of all tariffs:

• Support for other operating systems - Mac OS X, iOS and Android.
• View and edit documents using the built-in Office applications.
• Remote access to everything on the computer (not just OneDrive folders) that has the service installed and uses your Microsoft account.
• Creation of photo albums.
• Built-in messenger (Skype).
• Creation and storage of text notes.
• Search.

Only paid versions:

• Create expiration links.
• offline folders.
• Multi-page scanning with saving documents to a PDF file.

In general, the service is not bad, but sometimes there are problems with logging into the account. If you are going to use the web version of the repository (through a browser) and access it under a different IP address than before, Microsoft will sometimes run a verification that the account belongs to you, which takes quite a lot of time.

There were also complaints about the removal of user-generated content from OneDrive - when Microsoft suspected that it was unlicensed.

is one of the oldest cross-platform cloud storages. Unlike the previous one, it supports all major OS, as well as some rarely used, such as Symbian and MeeGo. The service is very easy to use, works quickly and stably.

A DropBox user is given only 2 GB of disk space for free to store personal files, but this amount can be doubled by creating and attaching another one to your account - work (which can actually be personal). Together you get 4 GB.

Switching between personal and work disk space on the DropBox website and in the application is carried out without logging out of your account (you do not need to enter your login and password every time). A separate folder is created on the computer for both accounts - 2 GB each.

DropBox, as expected, also has several tariff plans. Free was mentioned above, Paid is "Plus" (1 TB, $ 8.25 per month, intended for personal use), "Standard" (2 TB, $ 12.50 per month, for business), "Advanced" (unlimited volume, $20 per month for 1 user) and "Enterprise" (unlimited volume, individually set price). The differences between the last two are in the set of additional options.

In addition to storage, free users have access to:

• Service joint work with DropBox Paper docs.
• Ability to share links and create shared folders.
• Log of file changes with the ability to restore them to previous version(up to 30 days).
• Commenting on files - both your own and other users, if the file is available for viewing.
• Search function.
• Receive event notifications (configurable individually).
• Automatically upload photos from the camera (by the way, for enabling this option some time ago, DropBox provided users with additional space).
• Choice of full or selective synchronization.
• Data encryption during storage and transmission.

The possibilities of paid tariffs can be listed for a very long time, so we will note only the main ones:

• Remote destruction of data from DropBox on a lost or stolen device.
• Link expiration date.
• Two-factor account authentication.
• Setting access levels to different data.
• Enhanced information security class HIPAA / HITECH (secure storage of medical records).
• 24/7 technical support.

DropBox, if not the best, then a very worthy service. Despite the small amount of free space by today's standards, it is used by millions of people around the world.

Mega (Megasync)

As you can see from the description, Amazon Web Services is focused only on the corporate sector and is not intended for storing albums with photos of cats, although it is possible that someone uses it for this as well. After all, cloud file storage - Amazon Glacier, like Yandex disk, provides users with 10 free GB. Additional volume costs $0.004 per GB per month.

Comparing Amazon Glacier to the web resources described above is perhaps incorrect, as they serve slightly different purposes. The functionality and capabilities of this service are determined by business objectives, including:

• Uninterrupted operation, increased reliability.
• Compliance with enhanced data protection standards.
• Multilingual interface.
• Unlimited volume (extension for extra charge).
• Ease of use and flexibility of settings.
• Integration with other Amazon Web Services.

Those who are interested in Amazon's capabilities can check out the full AWS product documentation, which is located on the official website.

Mail.ru

It occupies the second or third place in the popularity rating of file web storages among the Russian-speaking audience. In terms of its set of features, it is comparable to Google Drive and Yandex Disk: it, like them, contains web applications for creating and editing documents (texts, tables, presentations) and a screenshoter (a utility for taking screenshots). It is also integrated with other Mail.ru projects — mail, the My World and Odnoklassniki social networks, the Mail.ru service. Dating, etc., has a convenient file viewer with a flash player and is also very affordable (for those who do not have enough allocated space).

The Mail cloud has 8 GB of free storage space (this figure has changed several times in the past). The premium plan for 64 GB costs 690 rubles per year. For 128 GB you will have to pay 1,490 rubles a year, for 256 GB - 2,290 rubles a year. The maximum volume is 512 GB, it will cost 3,790 rubles a year.

Other functions of the service are not much different from similar ones. This:

• Shared folders.
• Synchronization.
• Built-in search.
• Ability to share links.

The Mail.ru client application runs on Windows, OS X, iOS and Android.

Cloud storage is a proprietary web service for owners of smartphones and tablets of the same manufacturer. Designed for storage backups data from mobile devices- multimedia content, OS files and other things at the discretion of the user.

Client samsung app Cloud is preinstalled on phones and tablets released after the second half of 2016 (after the release of Samsung Galaxy Note 7). Registering an account on the service is possible only through it, apparently to screen out outsiders.

Free storage is 15 GB. An additional 50 GB costs $0.99 per month, and 200 GB costs $2.99.

iCloud (Apple)

- a favorite among cloud storages among users of Apple products. Still, because it is free (though not very roomy) and is integrated with other apple services. The service is designed to store backup copies of data from the iPhone, iPad and iPod, as well as user media files, mail and documents (the latter are automatically synchronized with the contents of iCloud Drive).

Free iCloud storage is 5 GB. Additional storage is priced at $0.99 for 50GB, $2.99 ​​for 200GB, and $9.99 for 2TB.

The iCloud client app supports operating Mac systems OS X, iOS and Windows. Official application is not developed for Android, but owners of devices based on this OS can view mail from the Apple cloud on their device.

The Chinese service completes the top cloud storage parade. As you can see from the screenshot, it is clearly not adapted for you and me. Why is it needed then, if there are domestic, European and American analogues more familiar to the Russian-speaking person? The fact is that Baidu provides users with a whole terabyte of free disk space. For the sake of this, it is worth overcoming the difficulties of translation and other obstacles.

Signing up for Baidu Cloud is significantly more labor intensive than the competition. It requires confirmation by a code sent via SMS, and SMS from a Chinese server does not come to Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian numbers. Our fellow citizens have to get out with the help of rent virtual number phone, but that's not all. The second difficulty is that an account cannot be registered for some email addresses. In particular, on gmail services (Google is blocked in China), fastmail and Yandex. And the third difficulty is the need to install mobile application Baidu Cloud on your phone or tablet, because that's what 1 TB is for (when registering on a computer, you'll only get 5 GB). And it, as you understand, is entirely in Chinese.

Aren't you scared? Go for it and you will be rewarded. Information on how to create a Baidu account with your own hands is available on the Internet.

Modern technologies are developing at such a speed that we not only do not have time to use them, we simply do not have time to figure out what's what, as something more modern has already appeared.

More recently, we sought to buy a more advanced "machine" that could pull all our needs, but it seems that this approach is becoming a thing of the past.

Today, the popularity of the "cloud service" is growing. So what is it and why is it the future?

A cloud service is an opportunity to provide the user with various options via the Internet. If it’s quite simple, then this is the ability to use various programs, disk space, and hardware remotely.

Now a person does not need to have a huge hard drive, he just buys a few gigabytes of space and stores all the necessary information there. All you need is high speed internet.

Or, for example, you need the same Microsoft Office, and the program itself is not on your computer. You go to the "cloud" and run this program online.

But it doesn't end there. If you decide to open your own business, then the “cloud service” is exactly what you need, since with its help you can seriously simplify the whole process of servicing your business.

In conclusion, it is worth noting that this area will develop rapidly, as this service not only makes life easier, but also saves money.
Therefore, today it is very important not to miss the moment and understand all the advantages of this service.

What is "cloud" technologies?

Surely, many users think that we are talking about something incredibly abstruse, intended for a narrow circle of specialists. In fact, "cloud" technologies are designed for both the computer genius and the average PC user.

The basic principle of the "cloud" technologies is that all the required information (user data, programs for working with files) is stored on remote web servers. Ultimately, the result of the work can be saved to a computer.

Technologies are called "cloud" because the Internet itself and remote services in particular are indicated on computer diagrams in the form of a cloud.

It is worth noting that cloud technologies have an incredible set of opportunities, among which:

Create and edit on the fly text documents, complex mathematical tables and presentations;

Photo editing, creation of elementary vector images;

Using remote disk space as a safe in which to store
almost any files;

Send/receive e-mail services familiar to most users.

Among the most famous "cloud" services, I would like to highlight, of course, Google Docs from the Google search engine of the same name, Dropbox, Pixlr, iCloud and Office Web Apps.

The Internet has become entrenched in our lives. Many users can no longer imagine their lives without a computer. Naturally, technology improves every year. And for active users of the global network, such a useful technology as a cloud server has appeared. What it is? What is it for?

Cloud computing is...

Today it is very common to hear about such a function as cloud computing. The name of such servers comes from a graphic image that is used to designate technologies.

Cloud computing is the ability to access data without installing special applications on the device. Everything necessary support servers are provided to users. But whether you have to pay for this remote access to data or not depends on the requests.

How are cloud technologies different from conventional ones?

To better understand the difference between conventional technologies and cloud storage, you can take e-mail as an example. The case when mail client, such as Outlook, is already installed on the user's computer, and all data received by e-mail is saved to the hard drive, is considered a common IT technology. That is, the user himself can dispose of the received files and decide what to do with them. And the mail client will work exactly as long as the computer is running.

But the email that opens with the browser is already cloud technology. That is, the user, without installing anything on the device, can access his email address. Moreover, if something happens to the server on which all the data is stored, then access to e-mail will be lost.

What do you have to pay for when using the cloud?

Cloud server - the technology is not completely free. There are times when the user will have to pay for the provision of cloud storage services. All servers are divided into three types that charge for different features.

• IaaS is a cloud model that requires a provisioning fee remote access to the storage. That is, the user pays only for access to the server.
• When using the PaaS cloud, you will have to pay not only for the available resources, but also for access to special data processing software.
• SaaS - storage that provides access to the whole complex software, for which, of course, you will have to pay a considerable monthly fee.

Positive sides

The use of cloud technologies has a number of advantages, which are quite significant.

It is very profitable for young enterprises to use cloud servers. They will not have to worry about buying their server hardware, spending money on building local network, hire sysadmins. It is enough just to choose one of the cloud servers, which is ideal in terms of memory size, number of clients and other characteristics, and pay a monthly fee once a month.

Cloud computing is the ability to access the necessary information using a regular browser from anywhere in the world. Uptime will no longer worry the client, as it is monitored by those who are paid by the user for cloud storage. Such systems are in demand among corporate users who need to establish a workflow in the network of enterprises.

For ordinary users who simply do not want to clog their computer with unnecessary information, there are free cloud servers that will be enough.

Negative points

Of course, new cloud technologies also have a number of disadvantages.

Firstly, confidential data that is transferred using cloud storage can be intercepted by hackers. The quality of the Internet connection must be very high. In case of interruptions with the Internet, access to data on the "clouds" will be impossible. At the same time, large enterprises still need System Administrator to establish data transfer.

If the client wants to save money and prefer a cheaper server, then he will have to face performance problems. Cheap cloud storages have not very good hardware infrastructure, in which problems appear regularly, and it takes a lot of time to fix them.

If the use of cloud technologies is planned for the long term, then this can be much more expensive than installing your own local server. Especially if a cloud technology with a wide range of possibilities, such as SaaS, is chosen for work.

Overview of cloud storage

Cloud technologies are storages that can be divided into three types of services:

• Creation of infrastructure.
• platform services.
• Software Services.

This division will help with the choice of a cloud server for data storage.

Windows Live SkyDrive is suitable for those who need a large amount of data. It allows you to store information up to 25 GB in size. There are no file format restrictions. However, for some types there are a number of advantages. So, for example, when storing Office documents, it is possible to edit them immediately in the browser.

Dropbox has become more widespread than Windows Live SkyDrive, although it has a much smaller amount of information - only 2 GB. It is enough to install one application on the device to have remote access.

A dedicated server even exists for storing music. This is Grooveshark, which is considered one of the most popular cloud storage for music files.