Cloud Storage
Cloud Storage

What is the cloud?

Here at Offcloud, we mention "The Cloud" pretty frequently, and although we're sure you're at least mostly familiar with what the cloud is, we thought that today we'd go into it a little more, and tell you a bit about what the cloud actually is. At its heart, the cloud is essentially a giant network that surrounds us at all times; it encompasses a broad range of services and many of us will use it at some point in our day to day lives, whether that's for personal, or professional use.


Here at Offcloud, we mention “The Cloud” pretty frequently, and although we’re sure you’re at least mostly familiar with what the cloud is, we thought that today we’d go into it a little more, and tell you a bit about what the cloud actually is. At its heart, the cloud is essentially a giant network that surrounds us at all times; it encompasses a broad range of services and many of us will use it at some point in our day to day lives, whether that’s for personal, or professional use.

So, what do the experts have to say about the cloud, and what is it?

What is the cloud?

The general definition of “The Cloud”, or “Cloud Computing” is that it is a method of delivering information technology services and resources from the Intenret, and web based applications rather than a direct link to a server, or physical technology. The Cloud has a more prominent place in both workplaces and in the home these days due to the immense convenience that it brings to those of us who use multiple devices each day, or simply don’t want the clutter that physical properthy can bring along with it.

What the experts have to say about the cloud

“I view cloud computing as a broad array of web-based services aimed at allowing users to obtain a wide range of functional capabilities on a ‘pay-as-you-go’ basis that previously required tremendous hardware/software investments and professional skills to acquire. Cloud computing is the realization of the earlier ideals of utility computing without the technical complexities or complicated deployment worries.”
– Jeff Kaplan; game designer at Blizzard Entertainment.

“The “Cloud” concept is finally wrapping peoples’ minds around what is possible when you leverage web-scale infrastructure (application and physical) in an on-demand way. “Managed Services”, “ASP”, “Grid Computing”, “Software as a Service”, “Platform as a Service”, “Anything as a Service”… all terms that couldn’t get it done. Call it a “Cloud” and everyone goes bonkers. Go figure.”
– Damon Edwards – co-founder of DTO

“I don’t need a hard disk in my computer if I can get to the server faster… carrying around these non-connected computers is byzantine by comparison.”
– Steve Jobs – Apple chairman – speaking of the Cloud in 1997.

“The ‘cloud’ model initially has focused on making the hardware layer consumable as on-demand compute and storage capacity. This is an important first step, but for companies to harness the power of the cloud, complete application infrastructure needs to be easily configured, deployed, dynamically-scaled and managed in these virtualized hardware environments.”
– Kirill Sheynkman – managing director of RTP Ventures

Offcloud, your cloud-based download manager

As you can see, the cloud is vast, encompassing a great many features, programmes, services and things we use each and everyday. Although it’s been a long time in development to what we have today (Steve Jobs’ comment from 1997 just goes to prove that), the cloud is something that’s going to be around for a long time to come, and undoubtedly will grow and be presented to us in yet more ways.

 


Offcloud.com is a cloud-based download manager that lets you fetch, unlock or speed up any content found on the web directly to your device or to some cloud storage space.