Cloud Computing-The Pros and the Cons

Before taking this course, all I knew about cloud computing was one thing: That Apple users used “The Cloud”. I didn’t relate cloud computing to anything outside of Apple before, it wasn’t something I thought about. Before reading about it, I just thought that “the cloud” was something Apple made up to make sharing data between people who had family plans easier. You had to make sure that everything was downloaded to the cloud so that you wouldn’t lose it. Photos, texts, calls, contacts…all these things could be saved to the cloud. If I took a picture, it would show up on my mom’s phone. If I deleted a photo, it deleted from my mom’s phone. However, after last week, I know understand cloud computing and that it is very much not just an Apple thing. Cloud computing gives people and businesses the ability to save data on one device, such as a computer, and then to retrieve this data on a different device. For example, it would allow person A to save a document to their own computer and then person B could view that document on a different computer, or any other device. Cloud computing is great for collaboration and sharing data across networks. Another pro of cloud computing is how easy it is to use. It’s simple. Cost is another huge pro. Relating back to Apple, you can have multiple cloud accounts for free, this is a cost effective way to share data across different platforms. Despite these pros, there are still cons. For instance, security and privacy can easily be taken away. When not careful, anyone can access the data uploaded to cloud computing systems. In my personal experience, cloud computing has actually taken up storage. My mom takes pictures of EVERYTHING. And it takes up a TON of data on my phone. This can be frustrating, especially when I can’t take my own photos because all my data has been used, by someone else. However, I do have an option to create my own Apple cloud account…the only thing stopping me is myself and my inability to remember to do so.