Cloud storage allows businesses and consumers to store files and data in remote, off-site locations which can be accessed either through the public internet or a private network connection.
A prevalent use of cloud storage is in enabling teams who work remotely (either fully or partly) to have shared access to files, data and important company information from any location using any device. Employees can instantly share documents and files with one another, which is ideal for project teams that need to exchange information and for project managers who need to keep tabs on their teams’ progress in real-time.
Cloud storage can be preferable to local data storage for a number of reasons, including increased accessibility (files and data are accessible from any device that can connect to the internet), easier scalability (with cloud storage, you can easily scale your capacity up or down based on your storage needs), and faster disaster recovery (since data is stored in a secure off-site location, it is easily recoverable in the event of a hardware breakdown).
Cloud storage employs servers to store data (similarly to on-premises storage networks) but the data is delivered to servers that are located off-site. The majority of servers are virtual machines that are housed on actual servers. In order to keep up with demand, the supplier builds more virtual servers as your storage requirements grow. Depending on the extent of the cloud provider’s operation, the server with whom you connect transfers your data to a collection of computers housed in one or more data centres.
