Cloud services come in many forms. From computing, storing, and processing data to streaming services and security, there is a lot to comb through. Such services are also becoming more and more mainstream, sometimes even essential to run a business. Whether you’re a profiting company or an individual that wants to get the most out of life, cloud services are undeniably a part of daily life. For example, watching a movie or TV series is more common online than going to conventional movie theaters.
Storing media to be kept and cherished takes place on cloud storage rather than physical hard drives that are bulky to keep. Along with these services are complicated ways of hooking you in, such as AWS Free Tier services. In order for you to stay risk-free and take complete advantage of these services, you must first be knowledgeable and informed of the system.
What is the cloud?
Any product or service that you use that is accessible and controlled using the internet can be considered as something that’s using the cloud. Accessing your security camera at home using an app and the wifi is considered a cloud service. Storing data in a place that’s not from your hard drive but you have access to it the internet is also a type of cloud service. These things stretch out and vary for as much as you can imagine, and the possibilities of cloud services are not yet reached its fullest.
Types of Cloud Services
As was stated before, there is a multitude of cloud services that one could use to maximize their lives. With that, let’s differentiate the main and most common cloud services that you can make use of today.
- Cloud storage – Perhaps the most common use of the cloud is cloud storage. With big data and informational requirements in today’s world, your local storage wouldn’t just suffice. Even with photos and videos alone, the average phone would have its memory full in just 3-5 years. Keeping these cherished moments in photos and videos would not be as easy as one would think if you were to imagine the long term.
Cloud storage services solve this problem by offering you accessible memory storage so you can upload such things. This is more convenient than traditional storage devices as you don’t have to carry around a hard drive anywhere you go, just so you can back up, store, and access data from them. Cloud services allow you to have a connection to your memory storage 24/7, as long as you are connected to the internet.
- Cloud processing – Data processing is such a complicated task that many business companies need to solve in order to grow in scale. Take, for example, a shopping mall. It may seem unnecessary, but shopping malls always take in big data and try to make sense of them in order to gain profits. Every customer’s purchase, step pattern, and shopping time are all calculated. A single computer wouldn’t be able to do such things.
Availing of a cloud processing service allows these big companies to handle such data and plan for the best shopping mall layout, product placement, and even marketing in such a way that it benefits them the most.
- Streaming – streaming sites such as Netflix and Disney plus use what’s called AWS or Amazon Web Services. This company specifically offers cloud computing services that are highly attuned to web streaming and data processing in the media entertainment industry. Imagine your Netflix library. All of these movies and series are put somewhere, which is a part of cloud storage.
Another would be the recommendation list, where your behavior is being tracked and studied so that you would be presented with the best recommendations for the next show to watch. All of these things are run with AWS as a partner, and it just goes to show how amazing cloud service is.
