Cloud+Storage

= = = = = Cloud Storage =

Imagine you work in a large medical library that has just been devastated by a hurricane and flooding. All your backup files have been destroyed and your computer system is ruined. Now what? Now imagine that you have internet based web accessible files. Cloud storage is a great solution. Not only do you have a third party housing the information, you also eliminate the need for on-site procedures and system downtime during backups. And you aren’t tied to one computer or laptop to look at data. You can access the information from any device anywhere.

How does it work? As explained on Howstuffworks.com, “While cloud storage sounds like it has something to do with weather fronts and storm systems, it really refers to saving data to an off-site storage system maintained by a third party. Instead of storing information to your computer's hard drive or other local storage device, you save it to a remote database.”

Some popular cloud storage service providers are FilesAnywhere, Google Cloud Storage, iCloud by Apple and Ubunto One. In a review written by Justin James, he states that “FilesAnywhere combines online file backup and online file storage into one convenient package. With a huge feature set and a number of different ways to access the files, FilesAnywhere has something for everyone that has a need for offsite file storage”.

Cloud storage is a beneficial concept but there are some concerns associated with this type of backup. Two possible problems are security risks and personal information leaks.

**References**
Strickland, J. (2011). How Cloud Storage Works. In How Stuff Works. Retrieved November 10, 2011, from []

James, J. (2009, November 17). Review:FilesAnywhere offsite file storage. In TechRepublic. Retrieved November 15, 2011, from []