EP #6: What is the Cloud & How Does Apple iCloud Work?

Naples Mac Help with Jeff Bohr

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What is the cloud and how is it useful to you? Well, basically, the cloud refers to software files and services that run from the internet. So most cloud service cases can be accessed through a web browser, such as you know, Safari, Firefox, Chrome, or other companies offer dedicated cloud apps when you think of Dropbox or Amazon storage. So basically, a lot of people just take these for granted. And I'm going to kind of explain how they work. Because you think you're kind of pulling it down from the sky. But really, it's just based on the internet. So some examples of cloud services that you probably use daily, but don't even think about are maybe Google Drive or Apple's iCloud, Netflix, Hulu, Yahoo, mail, dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive, these are all cloud services. So basically, when you hear about the cloud, you're really talking about a computer or a group of computers known as servers. So when you have several computers connected together, they become a server, which can hold more data than a single laptop or desktop, dedicated what they call server farms. So you've got big racks of computers, you've probably seen these in the movies, where they just have a computer room. And there's big racks filled with all these black boxes that are spinning and worrying all the time. And that's basically where the cloud resides. So both Apple and Google and Amazon have huge server farms. So I know that Apple built one in North Carolina, which takes up acres and acres, and all it is is buildings, full of servers, which a server is just a group of computers. So that is the cloud. So the cloud, it's really coming from someone else's computer, and kind of what you want to think about when you use a cloud services, do you trust the person that is hosting this data? So as you may know, Apple has very good privacy standards, they're their number one. Mantra is privacy. So Apple servers are very encrypted, they're very safe. And even though something might reside on Apple servers, without your Apple ID and password, it can't be accessed. So the courts couldn't get it, the FBI couldn't get it, even Apple can't see it. So that's the most important thing when you think about a cloud service is is it secure? Now, as we all know, Google is an advertising company. So I would hesitate to store important personal documents on Google personally, just because they are known for mining data, and using it to market. So that's my personal opinion. And I know that it's happened in the past. So just be aware that when you do use a cloud storage service, make sure that it's secure because it is your data. And people see keep so much data on their devices now that it is imperative. So if you remember, like 10 years ago, maybe 12 years ago, before were there any cloud services, you had to keep everything on your computer, and hard drives in your house, you might have had backup drives, you had CDs or DVDs that you'd store data on. And that was great. But what that meant was you had to go home and plug in the CD or the backup drive to see the data. So one of the benefits of the cloud service is that since it is kind of an online service, you can access it from any device wherever you are. So whereas the 20 years ago, you just had to have your stuff on a hard drive, you had to be at your computer, connect every drive, look up all your files, find them while the cloud, what it means for most people is access. So what that means is that if you have a document or a calendar event, or a photo that you've used with a cloud service, it doesn't matter if you're in Timbuktu. Or in New York City, if you can get to a public library, log into a computer, you can access your data, because it is not really on a specific device. It is on a server which is the cloud. So the cloud means access that way. When you have an iPhone and an iPad and a laptop Mac or a