What is a Cloud Provider and how did I get it cached in on my search engine? A likely question for the newbie, but to the avid internet user or should I say Facebooker, they will already be familiar with this similar form of storage.

About Cloud Providers

Internet storage providers, ie cloud providers has been a known secret to saving files without the physical copy since the implementation of Yahoo, Hotmail, Google, and other email providers. People soon realized the dwindling need for floppy drives or even flash drives when you can just save the information with a cloud provider. That way the file can be accessed anywhere you go, your phone, the internet.  Cloud providers are making it easier and easier everyday to get to your content.

Of course the issue of security arises when you go to cloud providers to access your secure files. A notable evil of the internet yet with so many options of where to store your files, there should never be a case of having only one back up.

Cloud Provider Pros and Cons

Besides the pros and cons of Cloud Providers the average internet user has many reputable choices. Humyo, ZumoDrive, Microsoft’s SkyDrive, S3 from Amazon are amongst the first cloud provider companies that come to mind. Many cloud provider companies have made lucrative businesses centered around the storage of pictures, videos, files.

The diversity of cloud providers doesn’t stop at storage, peer to peer file sharing is also allowed to anyone for free. Opening the flood gates to morph programs so that you can have feed back on a document that you have just typed. Peers can view, comment, critique all in real time for programs such as Google Wave, Spicebird, Mikogo, Stixy and Vyew to name but a few.

Working on a virtual office is no longer a thing of the past that the Jetsons used to utilize. Instead of hogging all of the memory storage space on your computer, you can work online from a customized storage program thanks to cloud providers. Housing the same capabilities as if the world of memory storage had always been that way. They are gingerly called Online Suites, other examples of cloud provider online suite’s include Ajax13, ThinkFree and Microsoft’s Office Live.

It even seems that Online Suites users have customized themselves for everyone, even the user who always exceeds his broadband server. If you need the extra juice of a server there is a site where you can outsource your needs. Amazon’s EC2 provides the user with added processing capabilities. These cloud providers are labeled under service providers others include the open source AbiCloud, Elastichosts and NASA’s Nebula platform.

5 Examples Of Cloud Provider

These are the five examples of Cloud Providers that can be found on the web. There is the basic web storage cloud provider, collaborating web services, virtual office, the service cloud provider, and the original email on the go. I’ve seen all of these applications in action and I must say that each and every one has changed the speed and way that I conduct business.

I mean seriously who carries hard copies of documents now a days. I can see if it is a James Bond Document that mustn’t be compromised by unsecured internet connections. Safety is paramount or even the need for flash drives hasn’t completely obliterated, yet for the on the go person who has more than one email account, gigs upon gigs of files, movies, music, pictures. Hording all the information online with cloud providers so that it can be sorted seems like the most plausible option for sanity No?