Cloud computing allows you to use the Internet in order to have access to services, documents, and other important information.
It is the result of progress, the transition of society from paper and paperbacks to webpages and online documents.
The Internet has afforded society a way to get necessary activities done while still living life. There are quite a few advantages of cloud computing:
- unlimited access to services and documents
- prevention from total loss of documents and files
- saves time consumed with physical retail stores
- Digital items are less expensive than physical items
- less memory consumption on mobile devices and PCs
- convenience of digital content
- Financial freedom and protection
First, cloud computing provides unlimited access to services and documents. No matter where you are, you can access movies, books, digital services, and even company work from an online account.
Since you can be online anywhere in the world and access your files, documents, and services via a WiFi or cellular connection, there is no limit to your access over your possessions.
You do not have to worry if you leave your paper files behind; instead, just log onto an account and download them onto your laptop or smartphone. It’s that easy.
Next, cloud computing prevents you from experiencing total loss over your documents and files. If you are the victim of a random fire caused by extremely hot weather, what can you do?
If your paper files are destroyed in the fire, or destroyed in a flooding situation, you can always go online and access them from a computer or smartphone.
This is an important advantage for corporate employees because in the past, too much company paperwork was lost due to natural disasters and declining weather conditions.
Often, the paperwork would stretch back years, with companies left clueless as to how they could recover from such a tragedy.
Now, online cloud storage and email accounts prevent companies from ever losing their documentation ever again.
In addition, companies can also keep better patient billing and enrollment records now than ever before.
Universities, hospitals, pharmacies, and manufacturing corporations have proper reasons to save all their records online: how detrimental would the loss of paperwork be if the company had a client who had placed an order that was destroyed by water or fire?
What could a school do if it loss the only paperwork it had on a few hundred students, and had no way to replace it? The student might be summoned to the University Registrar in order to acquire information over a period of years.
The student may be forced to bring class schedules, tuition statements, and other letters sent from the university to the student in order to reconstruct the student’s information. In these times, a company or university need only go online to their document storage and find the patient or client information and order. What used to put companies out of business is no longer a threat, thanks to the advantages of cloud computing.
Saving internal memory storage is another advantage of cloud computing. With mobile devices in swing today, many consumers choose to purchase a smartphone, mobile tablet, or digital reader such as a personal digital assistant (PDA) to stay on the go.
If a consumer purchases an electronic device, he or she only has a limited amount of internal memory storage available on the device (16GB, 32GB, 64GB, or 128GB, according to Apple’s iPads).
If a consumer only has 16GB of memory and needs to access a document, he or she may be able to access the document from within an email or cloud storage account without having to download it onto their device.
This way, the individual can view the document and make changes without having to consume their local memory. This is the case, whether on a tablet, smartphone, laptop, or desktop PC.
Another advantage of cloud computing is that it saves you time often consumed with physical retail stores.
If you wanted to purchase some roses for your spouse on Valentine’s Day prior to cloud computing, you had to drive to a store, walk around and look at the roses or flowers, then wait for the cashier or representative to be available (if he or she were not too busy taking calls and jotting down appointments), then place your order — only to turn around and drive back home.
If traffic is terrible on the way to the florist, a good day turns bad quickly. Now, you need not consume gas money to order flowers online and have them at your door within two hours or less.
In some cases, online stores can promise you a same-day delivery if you order early enough in the day (say, 8am or prior to noon). You will not only save gas money and time (which are always a help), but also money for the items themselves. Amazon’s Kindle application will save you money on books.
Many books cost less by way of the Kindle than they do as paperbacks and hardbacks. Music is another service made accessible by cloud computing.
Before cloud computing became widespread, most consumers had to purchase an entire album to get one song they liked (unless a single with the song included was available for sale — and there were only a few singles for artists made accessible).
Now, thanks to cloud computing, websites are able to offer you individual songs for purchase that only cost ninety-nine cents, as opposed to $15-$20 for an album that you did not want to purchase in the first place.
Next, another advantage of cloud computing is the convenience of accessing digital content.
If you order an Amazon Kindle book, you do not have to wait for three to five days to get it by way of UPS; rather, the package comes right to your Kindle e-book reader or application, and you can start to read a digital book within minutes. The same can be said for digital music and movies.
The moment you purchase them, the amount is automatically deducted from your checking or savings account and you can access the content right away. If you want to watch the movie tonight, you can watch it tonight as opposed to one week from now.
If you want to see the new movie out but have not been able to get to a local movie theater, take it on your summer vacation and watch it while you’re away.
Along with the convenience of services lies financial freedom. There was a time when consumers had to reconcile their own bank statements each month. I remember my college days when, before cloud computing, each consumer had to balance his or her checkbook.
My bank (Wachovia, now Wells Fargo) gave me a checkbook the moment I transferred my money into their bank so that I could deduct payments and balance my finances as I needed to.
In these days, balancing your checkbook was the wise thing to do so that you would not spend over the amount you had in your account. Now, I can look online at my bank statement and notice that payments made today have been automatically deducted from the total in real-time.
Bank statements have an inclusive balance and a “available balance” so that you can see how much money is available — even if a payment or two has not been deducted from your checking or savings account.
Thanks to cloud computing, individuals no longer need to waste time pouring over their checkbooks at the end of each week or month (nor do they need to “do the math” to come up with an approximation of their bank balance).
Last but never least, financial freedom is tied to financial protection. As with your documents, your finances are protected online by a username and password. Let’s say, for example, that someone chooses to rob you and take your credit card or checking card.
If this happens, the thief will not get very far; as soon as you call your bank and say, “cancel my check card or credit card,” the card becomes null and void automatically.
If any money is spent before your bank cancels the card, you will be reimbursed for the money taken out of your account.
Before banks distributed “the plastic,” thieves could steal someone’s cash money and get away with it — and the individual had to count the theft a major financial loss that could never be recovered. Consumers now have more control over their finances, even in times of theft.
To add to the protection of cloud services, banks have also turned high-tech with surveillance cameras, video gear, and other anti-theft detections that have made bank robberies nearly obsolete.
The advantages of cloud computing provide safeguards against all sorts of dangers and losses — whether or time, money, or convenience.
Whether you are a doctoral student working on your dissertation, a bank client who wants to protect your financial interests, or a self-employed businessman who wants to work online at your own pace and hours, cloud computing has you covered.
