The ‘cloud’ is a term that we seem to hear everywhere these days. It’s definitely a buzzword. And practically every business owner has heard that they should be ‘moving to the cloud.’
But what is the cloud? The ‘cloud’ actually isn’t a monolithic entity. The cloud simply refers to replacing on-site hardware and software with hardware and software that resides on servers in a remote data center and are accessed over the internet. So ‘cloud computing‘ services are offered by many (large) companies, including the Amazon (through Amazon Web Services), Microsoft and Google.
The emergence of high-speed internet has allowed the cloud to become a viable option for businesses. It allows them to avoid investing in hardware and software on a permanent basis, and instead makes these subscription services (like ‘software-as-a-service‘ or ‘infrastructure-as-a-service’) that can be scaled as needs change.
While not all data in the cloud is secure at the same levels, the larger brand-name companies that offer cloud services offer data integrity guarantees that ensure you data is highly secure, often at redundant sites.