What is Cloud Computing & Some Advantages & Drawbacks of This Technology NCIX Tech Tips

**Understanding Cloud Computing: A Comprehensive Guide**

**Introduction to Cloud Computing**

In today's digital age, the term "cloud computing" is thrown around frequently, but many remain unclear on its specifics. This article delves into the essence of cloud computing, exploring its evolution from traditional storage methods, its advantages and disadvantages, and personal experiences with its use.

**Traditional Storage Methods**

Once upon a time, storing data was straightforward—internal hard drives and personal computers were the norm. As technology advanced, external hard drives via USB connections became popular, offering more storage capacity. These evolved into high-speed interfaces like eSATA and USB 3.0, supporting multiple drives for enhanced storage and RAID configurations for data safety.

**Evolution to External and Network-Attached Storage (NAS)**

The next step in storage evolution was the Network-Attached Storage (NAS) unit. While not a cloud device, NAS operates on local networks, offering centralized storage accessible across devices. This setup represents a bridge between traditional methods and the cloud.

**What is The Cloud?**

The cloud refers to remote data storage managed by third parties over the internet. Services like Dropbox exemplify this model, storing users' files on distant servers for universal access. Social media giants like Facebook and YouTube also utilize cloud computing, hosting user-generated content globally.

**Examples of Cloud Services**

Numerous platforms leverage cloud storage, including Microsoft SkyDrive, Google Drive (replacing Google Docs), and others. These services allow users to store various data types—videos, music, pictures, documents—either locally or in the cloud, each offering unique benefits.

**Advantages of Cloud Computing**

The primary allure of cloud computing is its economic efficiency. Companies like Google leverage bulk purchasing and advanced redundancy measures, such as RAID levels and multi-continent backups, ensuring unparalleled data safety. This scalability and accessibility, often at a low cost, makes cloud services appealing.

**Disadvantages of Cloud Computing**

Despite its benefits, the cloud poses challenges. Surrendering data control means potential legal vulnerabilities; warrants can bypass individual privacy. Privacy concerns arise as companies may analyze data for targeted advertising, as seen with Gmail and Facebook.

**Personal Experience with The Cloud**

The speaker's YouTube channels faced compromise due to account hijacking, illustrating both cloud advantages and pitfalls. While recovery was possible, delays and the resurrection of deleted content highlighted issues like permanent data archiving.

**The Speaker's Solution: Windows Home Server**

To mitigate these risks, the speaker employs a Windows Home Server—a personal cloud solution. This setup allows remote access while retaining control over data, balancing convenience with security.

**Final Thoughts and Comfort Level**

Reflecting on experiences, the speaker maintains a moderate comfort level with the cloud. While acknowledging its immense benefits, he is cautious due to past challenges. The decision to use cloud services should weigh accessibility against privacy concerns.

**Conclusion**

Cloud computing offers transformative potential but demands careful consideration of its implications. By understanding both its strengths and weaknesses, users can make informed decisions about their data management. Whether you're embracing the cloud's convenience or seeking alternative solutions, awareness is key in navigating this digital landscape.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwelcome to NCI Tech tips you've probably heard the term the cloud or cloud computing or cloud storage but not everyone necessarily understands exactly what the cloud is or how to use it or what are the advantages and disadvantages for you as as an individual person today we're going to be covering on a very broad level what the cloud can do for you traditional storage methods include things like internal hard drives and your PC itself that's where in the past we've stored our data next moving away from there we've got things like external hard drives which connect usually via USB then we've got more complicated external hard drives these might use high-speed interfaces like eeta and USB 3 and have even multiple drives inside for huge mass storage as well as data safety using raid finally in terms of things that you're going to manage on your own home network we've got Nas unit so this is not a cloud storage device but it's closer to the cloud than any of this locally attached stuff because it's still storage that is operating on your network but this is on your local network the cloud refers basically to a Nas that is accessed via the Internet and controlled by someone other than yourself so examples of this are Dropbox where you can just copy your files to this Dropbox folder and they're magically available anywhere basically Dropbox just has huge servers that store all of your data in one place so you can access it from anywhere even things like social Med media like Facebook and YouTube these are also methods of cloud computing and cloud storage because all of your photos will be available anywhere all of your videos will be available and accessible from anywhere things like Microsoft Sky Drive Google Drive uh which is the replacement for Google Docs so we're talking videos music pictures documents whatever it is you can store it locally using one of these more traditional methods or you can store it in the cloud the advantages of cloud computing are many one is so economical these huge companies with massive buying power are buying all these hard drives and they're saying look relax don't worry we'll take care of your data for it we'll keep it safe and the reality of it is companies like Google yeah they are keeping your data safe not only are they using raid level redundancy within a single machine to ensure that the data is backed up they're also backing up that entire machine on another machine somewhere else in the data center then they're taking that whole Data Center and they're backing it up on a completely different continent all at the same time so even an earthquake and a fire at the same time in one of their data centers would not make you lose your data that's amazing you can't protect your data that well on your own without investing in expensive equipment maintaining it regularly and going through a fair amount of Hassle and learning quite a bit about networking as well as About Storage so it's scalable it's cheap you can access your data from anywhere and I mean with things like Dropbox you're only paying a couple bucks I mean even Gmail has up to 25 gigs of storage in it that's amazing for a free service that's supported by ads which leads us to some of the disadvantages of cloud computing by surrendering your data to someone else you are giving them not only the access to it but also accountability for it so if a warrant is served they don't have to necessarily go through you to get your data they can actually go to one of these companies depending on the laws of the country that you happen to reside in something to bear in mind there's also the Privacy that you're giving up by allowing someone to go through all of your data so Facebook's a great example where if you're a young female who is an Engaged status your Facebook page is going to be covered with wedding rings and wedding planners and dresses and all those kinds of ads that are targeted directly to you that's what pays for Facebook to have enough ssds to store everyone's homepage to make sure that it's really Snappy Gmail is another great example you can be reading an email where a friend says hey do you want to go to Hawaii and go scuba diving you're going to see ads for plane tickets you're going to see ads for scuba diving centers and all of that is just because the cloud the data center that is storing all this information is reading it and then bombarding you with the ads that are most likely to peque your interest whether you're comfortable with that or not that's totally up to you there are some other disadvantages as well and I went through this a little while ago if you guys have been watching for a while you probably saw this where both of my YouTube channels ncixcom and Linus Tech tips were compromised by an account hijacker so what happened with that is I discovered the advantages and disadvantages of the cloud firsthand Advantage was that I was eventually able to get it back amazing right to have all of your data deleted taken away from you and just by going through Google I did manage to get it back disadvantage it took a month before I could get anyone's attention to help me restore it I'm a YouTube Partner you're probably not a YouTube Partner I don't know if anyone would ever get back to you disadvantage number two or maybe Advantage I don't know when all of the videos were restored to the accounts not only were the videos that I had had on the accounts restored but also every video I ever deleted from the accounts was restored all at the same time test footage sort of episodes that never got released all of it was just up there all of a sudden when they did the full account restore so another disadvantage of the cloud nothing is ever gone because these huge data centers exist so they can archive as much information as possible even information that you don't necessarily want to be there anymore so the solution for me is I store most of my data on a Windows Home Server and I can access that from anywhere it's kind of like my own personal cloud I can even browse my own pictures on my phone and I do use services like Facebook and YouTube because there are huge advantages just with the the breadth of audience you can reach as well as the ease of use that you get from using cloud computing however my personal Comfort level with the cloud is I'd say very medium because I've had good experiences with the cloud as well as absolute absolutely terrible experiences as well so thank you for checking out this episode of NC Tech tips and I'd love for you guys to leave a comment under the video and let me know what's your comfort level with the cloud what do you guys think and thumbs up the video if you liked the content today don't forget to subscribewelcome to NCI Tech tips you've probably heard the term the cloud or cloud computing or cloud storage but not everyone necessarily understands exactly what the cloud is or how to use it or what are the advantages and disadvantages for you as as an individual person today we're going to be covering on a very broad level what the cloud can do for you traditional storage methods include things like internal hard drives and your PC itself that's where in the past we've stored our data next moving away from there we've got things like external hard drives which connect usually via USB then we've got more complicated external hard drives these might use high-speed interfaces like eeta and USB 3 and have even multiple drives inside for huge mass storage as well as data safety using raid finally in terms of things that you're going to manage on your own home network we've got Nas unit so this is not a cloud storage device but it's closer to the cloud than any of this locally attached stuff because it's still storage that is operating on your network but this is on your local network the cloud refers basically to a Nas that is accessed via the Internet and controlled by someone other than yourself so examples of this are Dropbox where you can just copy your files to this Dropbox folder and they're magically available anywhere basically Dropbox just has huge servers that store all of your data in one place so you can access it from anywhere even things like social Med media like Facebook and YouTube these are also methods of cloud computing and cloud storage because all of your photos will be available anywhere all of your videos will be available and accessible from anywhere things like Microsoft Sky Drive Google Drive uh which is the replacement for Google Docs so we're talking videos music pictures documents whatever it is you can store it locally using one of these more traditional methods or you can store it in the cloud the advantages of cloud computing are many one is so economical these huge companies with massive buying power are buying all these hard drives and they're saying look relax don't worry we'll take care of your data for it we'll keep it safe and the reality of it is companies like Google yeah they are keeping your data safe not only are they using raid level redundancy within a single machine to ensure that the data is backed up they're also backing up that entire machine on another machine somewhere else in the data center then they're taking that whole Data Center and they're backing it up on a completely different continent all at the same time so even an earthquake and a fire at the same time in one of their data centers would not make you lose your data that's amazing you can't protect your data that well on your own without investing in expensive equipment maintaining it regularly and going through a fair amount of Hassle and learning quite a bit about networking as well as About Storage so it's scalable it's cheap you can access your data from anywhere and I mean with things like Dropbox you're only paying a couple bucks I mean even Gmail has up to 25 gigs of storage in it that's amazing for a free service that's supported by ads which leads us to some of the disadvantages of cloud computing by surrendering your data to someone else you are giving them not only the access to it but also accountability for it so if a warrant is served they don't have to necessarily go through you to get your data they can actually go to one of these companies depending on the laws of the country that you happen to reside in something to bear in mind there's also the Privacy that you're giving up by allowing someone to go through all of your data so Facebook's a great example where if you're a young female who is an Engaged status your Facebook page is going to be covered with wedding rings and wedding planners and dresses and all those kinds of ads that are targeted directly to you that's what pays for Facebook to have enough ssds to store everyone's homepage to make sure that it's really Snappy Gmail is another great example you can be reading an email where a friend says hey do you want to go to Hawaii and go scuba diving you're going to see ads for plane tickets you're going to see ads for scuba diving centers and all of that is just because the cloud the data center that is storing all this information is reading it and then bombarding you with the ads that are most likely to peque your interest whether you're comfortable with that or not that's totally up to you there are some other disadvantages as well and I went through this a little while ago if you guys have been watching for a while you probably saw this where both of my YouTube channels ncixcom and Linus Tech tips were compromised by an account hijacker so what happened with that is I discovered the advantages and disadvantages of the cloud firsthand Advantage was that I was eventually able to get it back amazing right to have all of your data deleted taken away from you and just by going through Google I did manage to get it back disadvantage it took a month before I could get anyone's attention to help me restore it I'm a YouTube Partner you're probably not a YouTube Partner I don't know if anyone would ever get back to you disadvantage number two or maybe Advantage I don't know when all of the videos were restored to the accounts not only were the videos that I had had on the accounts restored but also every video I ever deleted from the accounts was restored all at the same time test footage sort of episodes that never got released all of it was just up there all of a sudden when they did the full account restore so another disadvantage of the cloud nothing is ever gone because these huge data centers exist so they can archive as much information as possible even information that you don't necessarily want to be there anymore so the solution for me is I store most of my data on a Windows Home Server and I can access that from anywhere it's kind of like my own personal cloud I can even browse my own pictures on my phone and I do use services like Facebook and YouTube because there are huge advantages just with the the breadth of audience you can reach as well as the ease of use that you get from using cloud computing however my personal Comfort level with the cloud is I'd say very medium because I've had good experiences with the cloud as well as absolute absolutely terrible experiences as well so thank you for checking out this episode of NC Tech tips and I'd love for you guys to leave a comment under the video and let me know what's your comfort level with the cloud what do you guys think and thumbs up the video if you liked the content today don't forget to subscribe\n"