What Is a Cloud Service?

Sick of toting around thumb drives full of files or emailing yourself attachments so you can continue working on a project on a different computer? All that is a thing of the past in the cloud.

What is the cloud? The cloud is a service that stores your documents, files, music, and photos on secure third-party servers, allowing you to access them from any computer, anywhere, anytime with proper log-in credentials or a software download. Popular cloud services such as Google (Docs, Calendar, Tasks), Dropbox, Box, and Mozy specialize in storing your documents and files, while services like Flickr and Amazon can store your photos and digital downloads so you don't have to take up space on your hard drive and portable devices.

Moving your important documents to a cloud service helps keep you running at 100 percent, especially when it comes to business, since you can download and upload documents for your teams to access from any computer. No sharing of thumb drives or sending of email attachments necessary.

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