Safe and reliable storage for all your files

Traditional file storage

In the 2000s and the very early 2010s, I could remember reaching for a blank DVD/CD or plugging in my portable USB hard drive to back up my music, photos, videos and documents. Yea what a time it was. We made sure our the lasers in our optical disc drives were up firing and burning and still enjoyed the sound of the drives spinning up like a jet engine when we dropped in a DVD or CD into the tray and closed it. The humming sound of USB mechanical Hard Disks spinning up and the LEDs flashing in a myriad of patterns were assuring to our ears and eyes.

It meant that these devices were ready to accept our precious data in bulk transfer with just a couple clicks and drags of the mouse. It inspired us with that comforting feeling that even if our computer crashed or didn't turn on one day, that we could take these storage devices or discs to a friend or family member's PC or any other computer and still see all of our files on screen, safely nested on these physical media.

Some of the older folks might remember mix tapes from the 90s of our favorite songs compiled from different cassette and CD albums. We could rip music from CDs and store them as mp3s on our computer digitizing our entire music collection and if we had home recording or sermons etc. we could connect our tape player and turn them into mp3 files! This extended also to our digital camera photos and DVD/VHS movies as Hard Drive space increased. The computer made media storage, organization, backup and accessibility easier than ever.

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Sharing our media with family and friends was a breeze. No longer were we scared of losing our precious family memories on a VHS tape from it being damaged from lending or disgusted at seeing our favorite CD album scratched after a friend returned it. Having the ability to back up on storage media with our computer was a really assuring feeling and it actually made media sharing so much easier and safer.

Remember the early days of having a cell phone? We would physically connect the phone via a proprietary cable to our PCs and download our contacts to a file. Then when we got a new phone there was no email address to input, we'd connect the new phone to the PC and downloaded the file and restore our contacts. We could have updated these files at any time and make backups of our entire contact list and media on ours phone like ringtones etc.

Online file storage

In the late 90s and 2000s as the internet grew, services such as "Yahoo Briefcase" was quite popular where you could upload your files online for easy access on the internet from another location. Online file sharing was more a thing for the tech savvy as storage space was quite limited and internet upload speeds were much slower. In the later 2000s as online storage improved, services like "Dropbox" and Microsoft's "SkyDrive"and Apple's MobileMe" appeared.

As we moved into the 2010s and smartphones started taking over from feature phones becoming more prolific, the sharing of information became much more widespread with the ability to easily connect to the internet with mobile devices. Social media was limited but still there in the form of "Facebook", "Myspace" and "WhatsApp" etc. and this soon rapidly expanded in subsequent years.

Apple updated from "MobileMe" to "iCloud" in late 2011 and Google released "Google Drive" in early 2012. Microsoft also updated its "SkyDrive" to "OneDrive" in early 2014. By this time iOS, Android and Windows Phone were gaining a lot of traction in the mobile arena as smartphones became increasingly more powerful.

Google integrated Google Drive into Android, Microsoft did the same for One Drive with Windows Phone while Apple used its iCloud service on iOS as well. These integrations made it very easy for users to store their files in the cloud and access them on the go via internet connected mobile devices. All that was required was a valid account with each provider to freely use the cloud storage services.

"Cloud Computing" by FutUndBeidl -CC BY 2.0.

Modern cloud services

With internet speed and services growing at a rapid rate and people adopting their use likewise, it's no wonder that physical media storage is becoming much less common nowadays. This is not to say that we shouldn't backup our online data on our USB drives or discs but the safety and security that cloud storage offers has hugely improved within the last decade and this has offered users a good peace of mind when it comes to the privacy and protection of their data.

Services like iCloud, Google Drive, OneDrive and Dropbox continue to dominate end user online file storage nowadays. These services serve as back-end storage for their respective operating systems and online services and are usually linked with an Apple, Google or Microsoft account on the user's device which they use to register their back-ups across multiple devices.

Services like "YouTube Music", 'iTunes", "Spotify"and "Amazon Music" have virtually become the norm these days for listening to music. Not many people burn CDs or copy songs on mp3 players again. With the proliferation of Bluetooth and smart speakers today people are able to use their WiFi mobile device to play music from virtually anywhere there is internet access using their device alone with a valid subscription. On YouTube via "Vevo", music videos can be viewed for free.

These services have changed how we do things these days. Video streaming cloud services like Netflix, Hulu and Prime Video have pretty much replaced DVDs and Blu-rays for the majority of people. With a valid subscription, HD video can be streamed to phones, tablets and laptops anywhere there is internet access. Though video files are large, modern compression codecs like x264 and x265 have made streaming video easier with high quality compression especially with compact devices having increased processing power.

Photo sharing for armature and professional photographers alike also has a well-established niche in the cloud. Sites like the ever popular "Flickr", "Google Photos" and "500px" have given these artist an easel online so to speak. They are able to upload full resolution high quality photos with a host of tools for sharing online. The free services are quite generous for the average person and the Pro options offer great benefits for professionals.

"Circuit - Computer Chip - Cloud Security" by perspec_photo88 - CC BY-SA 2.0.

Present and future of cloud computing

Individual end users aren't the only users of cloud services these days. Businesses use these services also to streamline their workflow and alleviate the data management burdens of their organizations. It helps them stay more secure, reliable and reduces IT infrastructure costs significantly.

More complex cloud solutions like Amazon's AWS, Microsoft's Azure, Google Cloud Storage and Oracle's Content Management System are used by small to large enterprises to store and manage large amounts of organizational data. Employees usually have company accounts with which they can access these online services in part depending on the nature of their work at the organization.

Recently we have seen the increased use of Cloud based operating systems like Google Chrome and CloudReady (now ChromeOS Flex). These operating systems mainly use a web browser engine as their user interface and are geared towards running web applications rather than desktop and mobile applications. The latter was initially targeted towards older PCs and laptops, particularly in schools in an effort to reduce electronic waste but have since seen increased usage on newer computers as well.