Head in the Clouds? 5 Uses of Cloud Computing

by Andrea Beadle

I’ve had quite a few questions about Cloud computing recently. What is Cloud computing? How do I use Cloud computing? Do I need it?

Put simply, cloud computing means that you store your work in an area off your computer.. like a virtual computer hosted somewhere in cyberspace!

It has a host of benefits, particularly if you are in business for yourself. Here are the key benefits of Cloud Computing for beginners:

1) Computing on the move

Having your important documents and information stored in “a cloud” means that you have access to it from anywhere in the world and from any pc or mobile device that is connected to the Internet.

This means that your business is no longer tied to your desk. If you need to send an important document whilst away from your desk you can retrieve it from the cloud and email with your smart phone or laptop.

2) Version Control

Have you ever been working on an important document and ended up with so many versions that you don’t know which is the most recent? It can be a nightmare trying to work all the revisions into one final document!

With Cloud Computing you can store one version of the document which everyone has access to. No multiple versions flying back and forwards via email.

Share the document with people you want to have access and everyone knows they are seeing the latest version.

3) Dealing with Large Files

How many times have you had an important file and it is either too big to email or it is so big that it clogs up the email server and takes days to be delivered?

With Cloud Computing you simply upload the file from your computer and email a link for the recipient to download to their PC. Simple! This works for large files such as photos, videos and mp3 files.

4) Synchronisation across computers

I don’t know if you have ever struggled trying to keep your contacts updated on all your devices? I’ve struggled with this in the past and have ended up with multiple phone numbers for people because I didn’t know which was the latest!  Being able to change the details in one place and knowing that it is updated elsewhere would be fantastic!

If you have heard of iCloud, Apple has done a really great job of this. Across Apple products on the latest version of their operating system, when you change something on one device it is automatically updated on the others.

For example, with your contact information, if you change an address or phone number on your iPhone, it automatically updates on your iPad and your iMac or Macbook.

What’s more, if you lose your iPhone you don’t have to panic that you have lost all your contacts or have the hassle of trying to get them onto your replacement phone. Connect to the cloud where all your contacts are stored and it will all synchronise beautifully.

The only place it won’t update is the hard copy of your address book! Even Apple aren’t that clever!

5) Virtual Back Up

This was hinted at in point 4 but is so important it deserves a point of its own!

Storing information in a cloud means that if anything happens to your PC or laptop, you don’t lose all your precious work, photos and contacts.

Priceless in my opinion! Not only can you restore all your information to a new PC or laptop, you can continue to access it from someone else’s machine until your is fixed.

I also use Cloud software as additional back up for my website. Having once lost a website due to failed backups, you can never have too many!

Getting started with Cloud Computing

There are many different options to get started with cloud computing and all of them have free options to get you started with usually between 2 and 5 Gigabytes of storage free. If you are using Apple products you should definitely research iCloud.

I love Dropbox as an option to start with. You get 2G free and if you refer other people to them you both get some extra free storage. You can try it out using my link to get some extra storage here. You can also download a short getting started guide I wrote to use with my clients to see how simple it is from this link.

Google will be releasing something very soon although many of the email providers already use a form of Cloud for your email, you just may not have realised it!

Here are a few more Cloud computing options that you might like to research from an article online.

Do let me know how you get on!

 

 

Tagged as: Business on the Move, mobile business support