Any PC user who stores tons of information on his hard drive, in one way or another, is faced with such a concept as cloud services. This is a very interesting development of the last decade, which has turned some basic concepts about the storage, use or processing of data upside down. True, not everyone clearly understands how this all works.
Cloud Services: what is it? Main varieties
For some reason, most users believe that the so-called cloud is a kind of bulk information storage. This is not entirely true. By and large, the entire system of the functioning of the service is built precisely on such principles that involve access to remote servers. However, several major categories should be clearly distinguished.
If you give the simplest classification, we can say that cloud services are:
- storage of user and other files;
- remote gaming services;
- antivirus services;
- web-based information processing tools.
Despite the fact that they are all similar to each other in some ways, some basic differences can be distinguished, which will be discussed later.
Cloud storage service
In its simplest sense, a cloud service is nothing more than allocated disk space on a remote server, where a user can save his files and folders, download them again to his computer, perform simple operations for managing them or open up public access in order to someone else could use them.
Roughly speaking, this is actually such a remote hard drive. The allocated space, which can be used for free, depending on the owner of the service, can vary within a fairly wide range. On average, this figure fluctuates around 25-30 GB. For a larger volume you have to pay. This is justified for business or for those who store music or video files that take up a lot of space.
Among the most famous and most popular services are the following:
- OneDrive (formerly SkyDrive) built into Windows systems of the latest generations;
- Dropbox
- Google Drive
- Cloud Mail.Ru;
- Yandex Disk, etc.
Today, many companies provide such services, however, speaking about cloud technologies, one cannot ignore other aspects of their application and use.
Antivirus services
At the present stage of development of protection tools, which are presented in the form of antivirus software, cloud technologies have become actively used in this area.
The simplest example of their implementation is the popular Panda Cloud Antivirus antivirus scanner . How it works? If a threat is suspected of penetrating the system, for example, when downloading a file from the Internet, the scanner does not save it to the hard drive, and even before that it sends it to the “sandbox”, which, in essence, is the same cloud as which analyzes the suspicious object. And only after that permission is given or a ban on its preservation is established.
Interaction with cloud services through the web interface
Work with cloud services can also be represented in the form of user interaction with certain types of software through a web interface when connecting to a server via the Internet. The bottom line is this: the application is not installed on a user computer, but on a remote server. If you need to edit the same office documents located in the cloud, the server program is launched, but only in the form of a web application. The user in the browser can edit the file in the same way as if it were the same MS Office, installed directly on the local computer.
The file is also saved on the remote server, where it was originally located. In some services there is the possibility of simultaneous access and editing, when several users participate in the process itself. In this case, changes in the document are displayed for all users connected to the editor in real time. The advantages of this approach are obvious, because in stationary versions of office applications this can not be achieved.
Game Services
Cloud gaming service (Cloud Gaming) is also one of the varieties of such technologies. The essence of its use is that the online game software is initially installed on a remote server, and when a gamer accesses the game, it can partially be downloaded to a user computer.
These technologies distinguish two areas:
- streaming part of the game in the form of files necessary for its instant launch (File Streaming), which is approximately 5% of the total size;
- Video Streaming - hosting and processing of all game content directly on the server of the service owner.
The first type was previously introduced by services such as Utomik and Kalydo, which have already sunk into oblivion, and the second type is developing more dynamically and is represented by giants such as Playkey, LiquidSky, OnLive and many others. True, in most cases, any cloud service for games implies a fee for using a special passkey (PlayKey) or purchasing game resources (LiquidSky). But with this approach, you can start the game from any device (computers, laptops, tablets, smartphones, game consoles).
conclusions
Based on the foregoing, we can conclude that cloud services are not only a convenient tool for saving your own information, but also an excellent tool for managing it, working with many programs without physically installing them on your own terminal, simultaneous access and editing files and, Of course, huge opportunities in the development of the entertainment industry. And these are only the main areas in which the development of cloud technologies is currently underway. If we take into account the unification of the computing capabilities of computers that are at some point connected to the World Wide Web, the prospects for the development and use of such services look very tempting.