Cloud storage has increased in popularity over the past few years. There are several factors that make cloud computing a positive asset towards businesses and people looking for instant internet services. According to Randy Romes, “ “The Cloud” is an all-encompassing term for a virtualized information technology (IT) computing environment in which individuals and businesses work with applications and data stored and maintained on shared machines in a web-based environment, rather than physically located in a user’s location.” (Randy Romes, 5/8/2013).
There are very many benefits to cloud computing but as always, positive benefits come with some not so good negative effects. Out of many positive aspects to me the most important one is Lower costs in general. Back in the day, a Small business would have to invest money in buying dedicated servers to keep up with their demands. It cloud allows you to use resources as you need them and you pay to what you use instead of buying extra equipment ahead of time. Also, there are no costs related to upkeep and maintenance of hardware. That sounds great and all but let’s not forget about the negative aspects of cloud computing.
Among the least alarming of the negative aspects is loss of internet connection. If you store all of your documents on a cloud and lose connection you will not be able to access data that is crucial to business continuity. Most importantly though, the concentration of computing resources and users in a cloud computing environment also represents a concentration of security threats. Because of their size and significance, cloud environments are often targeted by virtual machines and bot malware, brute force attacks, and other attacks. (Randy Romes, 5/8/2013). Overall I believe that the positive outweigh the negatives.