It’s not a stupid question. It may be one you’ve wondered for a while but been too afraid to ask. iCloud, Cloud based marketing, the Cloud. What does it mean? Does it mean that all our files, photos and videos of our cats are now in the sky?
Let’s go back a few years.
Before computers, we had paper, folders and filing cabinets. When computers came around, we wanted to start storing some of these files, photos and data on them. One computer could store whole filing cabinets worth of documents, saving trees load of paper and space. Computers have hard drives, but hard drives only have a certain amount of space on them, they also can only be accessed by the computer they’re stored within.
At some point, two things happened:
We ran out of space on the hard drive and wanted to store more.
More than one person wanted to access the same file.
Then, servers were invented. Servers are essentially a big hard drive full of data that more than one computer can access at any time. Perfect! However, from the 1980s to early 2000s the only way that servers were accessed were from an actual physical space in an office. So if you worked in London and wanted to access some data that was held in Birmingham, you had to go to Birmingham to log onto their servers to get that data.
So how did the Cloud start?
The cloud was actually believed to have been invented in the 1960s by Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider to allow people to access data from any location. It didn’t come into use fully however until the 1990s and didn’t become popular until noughties, when firms like Dropbox, Pinterest and Box started making use of the technology.
What actually is it though?
The Cloud isn’t as etheral as it sounds. The Cloud is a miriad of warehouses that have huge servers in them, based all over the world. Amazon, Oracle and Microsoft are the world leaders when it comes to cloud based storage. Companies small and large then ‘rent’ space from Microsoft, Oracle or Amazon to store their data (documents, pictures and videos). Companies like eBay, Netflix, and Samsung use these services to store or “host” their data. Some companies, like Facebook, still have their own huge data servers, but these are costly to build, maintain and keep secure, which is why so many companies decide to host in the Cloud instead.
Why should I use the cloud?
The cloud means you can access your data from anywhere, as long as you have an internet connection. Since C***d-19 and the need to WFH (Work From Home) has increased, investing in a cloud-based system means that your team can access data from anywhere. You and your team will likely move back to offices soon enough, but if you don’t, or if you increase your flexible working policies to include more home working, the Cloud will become your friend.
What about security?
Microsoft, Amazon (or wherever else your data is hosted), as hosting companies, work hard to ensure that your data is secure. Think about if a hotel had a policy that cleaners leave the guest rooms open after cleaning, and they let anyone and everyone enter the hotel, they probably wouldn’t get much custom! So these companies have to work hard to keep things safe using security measures. The companies who then build your data system and host your data, whether it’s Dropbox or Makerble then work hard to ensure that only you can have access to your data, by providing you with secure accounts, logins and additional security features that mean your data is secure.
Phew!
Now we know more about what the Cloud actually is, why not book in a time with one of the team to find out more about Makerble and how we can help your charity run its operations and measure impact in the Cloud?