Billions of people use the internet every day, from posting Facebook photos to checking their bank accounts. Much of that happens in the cloud. But what is it, really?
Many believe the cloud is the internet, but it’s “really nothing more than a connection mechanism,” says David Linthicum, a cloud expert and chief cloud strategy officer at Deloitte Consulting. Among information technology circles, the cloud is simply shorthand for “someone else’s computer.” You can manage and store your content (music, photos, data) from anywhere, using the internet to access servers in vast data centers — literally, other people’s computers.
Apple’s massive new data center is in Mesa, Arizona, not far from Phoenix. These behemoth buildings are often built in places where real estate is relatively cheap. (Credit: Jim Todd/Reuter)
Jim Todd/Reuter
Gone are the days of buying expensive software and worrying about having enough space on your device. Rely on ...
