[oltre mm Selanleveiia oie. e Getting to grips with — By § i a. the cloud for home and business users i | Discover how the cloud can help you ay ~~ ee? Google, Microsoft, Dropbox § In-depth reviews of and Apple services covered § essential cloud services SeORORBlack Dog Media Master Your Tech To continue learning more about Your Apple tech visit us at: www.bdmpublications.com iPhone & iOS Print & digital editions Featuring the very latest updates Step-by-step tutorials and guides Created by BDM experts Check out our latest titles today! SPECIAL DEALS and Bonus Content Sign up to our monthly newsletter and get the latest updates, offers and news from BDM. We are here to help you Master Your Tech! om ~\__ subscribe tojonavoid? Sateen eee era Meer tole Bec cotro mrt cre i PCE Sec rerree eect which could do with a bit more work. FC ’ . Fe i eS 32_ MEGA Ere cero) Od ) rer cern EgTop Cloud Storage Providers Google Drive oIN THE BEGINNING... When the service launched back in 2012, citcisms were aimed atthe company's storage policy and Terms of Service. Essentially the language used granted Google the rights to reproduce, use and create derivative works rom the content stored within Google Drive. Its worth noting thatthe policy accepts that the original user retains intellectual property rights. The privacy community and many others raised concerns over Google’ rights to use the information and. data to create advertising and other services. MOVING ON The service launched with support for Android Windows, and rmacOS as a web interface. Italy there was mediocre support ‘or Linux and although there was an app that could sync, upload and soon to Drive from Linux computers sadly the app wast further developed and as such it stopped functioning, ‘once Google started to update the Drive service 2014 saw an overhaul ofthe web interface version of Google Drive, with anew look and significantly improved performance also simple alot of the common tasks, such asa drag: and-drop feature within Drive that enabled users to move files within folders and such The functionality to download files lcally from Google Drive was also drasticllyimproved allowing larg files tobe downloaded as multiple 268, compressed files with improved naming structures. Conclusion Google Drive Gl However the case dldrit go far Ik as ater revealed that ‘Google's online clou storage policies werent as bad as some from other companies. And Google di clarify that, despite the language used inthe policy the rights were in pace to allow itto:move the fles around its farms of geolocated servers, ‘ache the data for easy access tothe users and make image ‘thumbnails when viewing the les Obviously since there are ‘nearly 10 tilin fles'now allegedly stored an Drive, the policy hasnt affected thase using the sevice. STORAGE ‘The amount of storage available on Google Drive was initially ‘one ofits best selling points When fist unleashed to the public, Google Drives free SGB of storage was significantly better than the competition, but it dirt take long for other cloud storage providers to latch onto the 5GB free model As the service matured, Google offered its users an unlimited numberof photos at a maximum of 16 megapixels and videos at a maximum resolution of 1080p, for free, using the High-Quality setting in Google Photos - whichis shared space from Google Drive and Gmail. If auser reverted tothe Original-Qualty setting then the Google Drive quota would start counting the megabytes used. You can, for a price, increase the storage available 15GB for frees stil reasonably okay, but if you're using Google Drive for active backups, and staring lots of Gmail content, youre likely to start reaching the limits, For the princely sum of around $2399 per month though, you can opt forthe maximum ‘consumer storage imit of 3078 (terabytes), which should keep the average user happy for ‘quite some time. Google Drive has been around forsome time, andit's still considered the go-to consumer cloud storage service. It’s easy to see why though, with its Internet presence, huge Poeun a rke eee eer Cede aeUre eure ree erce cm echt uae Reet etyAe) Top Cloud Storage Providers MediaFire 1B Account nd rg al sists © Presous Fe versions ‘outsterge Und Tota Douload ered @ Pertermance * sont | 617.06MB 370 sng) 999.98 GB coma From3.164toxal fs | Since November 11,2013 | EEE | incudingRo-Over Bandwidth | 4 domiosd onions Ogun Details plea optons scat news DisplayNames——_asky Meare 1 snes cass eas mat Ake: beclymeivetgmal.com (6 ena PEM Ure ECU RO Ue C lta Trt based in Texas, MediaFire has proved itself to be one of the founding cloud storage providers. Now with over 150 CTC ee Ua Cee Rue Cla e aC emu company is continually adapting and improving its services. ee reece ca, ndroid, macOS, Windows, and as awet ae eae ete meee a eerie e rd another solution in place.‘SIMPLE BUT EFFECTIVE Essentially, MediaFire offers a barebones approach tits cloud storage solution. Theres a 10G8 free plan available,butwth breaker; mary users prefer to opt for asimple we interface, or mobil over something installed on their desktop. some referral options, such as Tweeting the service you can upgrade the amaunt of free storage to 50GB, ‘The mabile applets you automatically upload, and backup, photos and videos to the MediaFire servers, after which you're ‘able to previow them. The maximum upload fle size isa decent 2068 so unless youve gota sizeable video file in higher resolutions you should be good to go. Upload speeds ae very fast, mainly duet the company using geolocation servers but als the fact that its not as congested 8s Google Drive ar Dropbox despite the big companies having more servers available worldwide. However its worth mentioning that the service doesnt include any form of online office suite suchas with Microsofts ‘OneDrive and Google Drive Andit ack third party integration with other apps so youll need to manually upload ary fies created through an office suite, The company started with a desktop client that could upload, sync download and so on However, suppart forthe app became costly sonow't uses mabile and web client to access the user’ files Nevertheless a desktop app isnt a deal PRICING ‘The intial 10GB is fre, but there are Pro and Business options availabe, The Pro option features 17B of storage, the abilty to dovnload entire folders share les password protection and ‘more, ands available for $37 per month. “The Business option is quite surprising as it offers up to 10078, of storage for a maximum of 100 users and cats ust $40 per ‘manth For this you get all the features that Po offers plus the Additional 100 users, customisable branding and a detailed security log (Goyarellsiteya MediaFire may not have the feature-rich capabil Se ei earn ies ties of Google Drive, or some of the Pee eect encaric keds If you're looking for a service that doesn't have all the bells and whistles, is easy to. use from mobile or web, and has good consistent upload speeds, then MediaFire is certainly Prats The bad points are: mediocre collaboration options, built-in office suite, desktop client, Peet eter eens there are misses, with a litle work, you're able to get 50GB of free storage as a backup, using this simple but effective cloud service.Top Cloud Storage Providers } Sync.com Sync.com is a Canadian company that was founded in 2011 by Thomas Savundra, Suhan Shan and Darius OMe MeU CN acon ec ece | privacy-friendly, easy to use cloud eee CC MCC O) offers 5GB of storage alongside SEU Ur Rel Uc Cer Ue dtl backup and sync, and the ability to Peer ares Keep your files safe, secure and 100% private stoned enna Sharing Shared fier Private folder Soe eee ea create a functioning cloud storage Pree ey erect Peery See er pete eres perenne tec ee ete personal data within Sync’s higher-level encryption cloud. ‘There's no upload or download limits on the free option, no third-party tracking, and ile versions and recovery are limited to 30-days, You can additionally, password protect your files and create password protected sharing, along ‘with two-factor authentication and the ability to create three rere ares Deer eee tre Peetu see ee aitrs Pree out) Deen ae ed Pee Gai ances Pro eames Coenen a os of Microsoft Office so youll have to Pee eeu oacas Peart eet eet SectSECURITY ‘Thebig selling point with Synccom isthe aforementioned heightened security The service, incorporating the free option includes AtRest encryption and In-Tarsit encryption tothe tune of AES 256-bit- mearing a brute force attack to gain access to the contents ofthe encrypted les would take a ‘moder computer the current age of the universe to crack, around 139 bilion years ‘Added to thatis the wo actor authentication, a company policy oF zero-knowledge (no knowledge of what stredin the Seni] ant benef rom Canadian privacy lasso your datas protectedby law and nat allowed ta be accessed bythe Uke ofthe Patrot Act whichis active inthe US ‘Another interesting feature isthe service's versioning contro, ‘thatwillet yourollback any changes to ale fr upto 30-days, (nor if you use the pay fr services) Ary corruptionto aie, either by accident or design (suchas malnare) canbe reverted toa previous version fnecessary. Personal Cloud Secure sae star PRICING Higher grade storage solutions through Sync.com are ‘available through diferent levels of pricing, There are Personal and Pro Solo options for $60 and $96 per year respectively that offer up to 20068 forthe Personal and 278 for the Pro Sola Other advantages apply tothe subscription plans, such as unlimited transfer limits, 120-day and 365-day file version contro, and advanced sharing and collaboration features ‘There's also a Sync Pro setof plans for business users: Solo $10 per month, Teams from $5 per month (based on per user). and Enterprise from §20 per month (again based on per user). The storage mits increase dramaticaly with each plan, from 3TB forthe Solo, upto 10TB forthe Teams, and a Custom storage option forthe Enterprise plan. Needless to say the busines list of features includes ‘everything the other payment plans offer and more; with core features such as 999% uptime, year-long or custom level ile version and recovery and increased levels ofboth lve and phone support $60 See Mca uege Mec ees ream aid it's not as all-consuming as Google, Microsoft, or Dropbox, Pe Cee eee sce r eeu a eee eect) may feel alittle low, but the higher than normal levels of Pre cnr ager an Conclusion a eee ror eins ret rare PcaseUr bee nmin ctl suet Con Pearman reer kat ttnMEGA Storage was OU Courts Rc Eee than the infamous Kim Dotcom after Urea ec UOMO et a) were shut down due to copyright infringement accusations. Shortly ae meta) Msc UCC UNCC Ore! Cu UU respected privacy-based cloud Barer wCUe lym Despite its founder's notoriety, MEGA doesnt seem to have suffered any bad press since Dotcom split. In fact its quite eee ee eee ere Cree tn eee er ere ceed authentication and utilising the user's password as the root eco Pee ec Pee cere na cet MEGA's enhanced security, as well asthe other benefits and features the cloud storage service offers Primary on the list of features isa decent SOGB of free storage available; there are Pro and Business payment plans naa eee ene ove eee file transfers, with plenty of bandwidth forthe user to upload large files and folders; there's a Chat function built-in, whereby auser can startafully end-to-end encrypted chat Pern ren cs eer ca cc rons MEGAbird add-on for Mozilla Thunderbird that enables you. ‘to send larger than normal files with full encryption, and there's even a MEGAcmd feature which isa comman¢-line Pe eos ceo eee Ser ter ee ee Ce photos and play videos stored in your user area and there's a aaa Pemeee earTecy Petters Cates Pere reeriest arty preter eer’ peer ec eee that feature better than eer een eee nes rerun uc Cerne! ce eet cern(MEGA ENCRYPTION & SECURITY ‘As we've mentioned heightened level of security and privacy your password if youlose your password. youve lostyour stored are chief among the ist of features that MEGA offers Asyou data). The chat functions full encrypted, and there's the would expect from the service founder’ point of view privacy _abiltyto create encrypted shared folders If user wishes to issomething MEGA takes very seriously and admittediy.it share data wth another user he encrypt the required does a good jb oft too ‘encryption keys wth the recipient public key before ‘ransmitting them Ther key fingerprints canbe verified Secured with AES 256 bit endto-end encryption allthroughput through an independent channelto ensure the identity ofthe between MEGA andits desktop app ae priate The contents recipient Ary change triggers an alarm eliminating the rskof within your cloud storage area are uly encrypted. and impersonation trough apostverification marin-the-middle ‘therfore privat. The use’spassword being the roat encryption attack Itmay sound ke something from aspy move but you key isprivate-nocone at MEGAhas acessia or can access, _haveto applaud MEGS use of enhanced privacy PRICING “There's up to 50GB available for free. providing you participate in an achievement program and from there you can opt for varying levels of a Pro account for individuals “These start with Pro Lite at €428 per month, Pro Tat £857/ 428° fag ays’ ag ‘month, Pro Tl at £17:15/month, and Pro II at £2573/ = = 2. 5. ‘month Each Pro level increases the available storage and transfers from 20068 to STB. “The Business plan offers a three-user license at B10 per user but with unlimited storage and transfers, together with more ‘team sharing features and abilities builtin tothe service. A Deca ce ences eee ers Conc lusio 11 questionable elements to take into-consideration: The first PRUs Cm ue Cla ie Cea le Rr ee ee Oe est ER Uae oe then you‘re less likely to want to sign up to a cloud storage service that was initiated by him for the Penne me aa nar Pease erty Perec trie tcrere! ero There's also an issue with free storage. According to some sources, the free storage option drops to 15GB after a few months, even if you've participated in the achievement eevee ccna ence tects having our account before this became a policy — one to look out for, though, Oe O ac eer cette eesti) excellent levels of encryption and privacy. There are cheaper alternatives but at the cost of lower privacy: sembdrabetsconHeadquartered in San Francisco, PTC ee CER CORLL! Pee aura aC cnn DOME OU CUCU nec OEE eee Rrueet unc ce NCAT ean cacao Ot CC and with a user base of over 500 Trade) billion pieces of content uploaded, DI eae eu mn) (oO Es Ocean URC a There's said to be over 22 billion files uploaded to Dropbox daily, which is probably why is considered as one ofthe best Perec ene ary something of arocky road for the company since it was founded all those years ago, The problems mainly stem from Dropbox’ lack of security, which includes several high-Level breaches inthe past, and Pee a eee eee era oy pea ae Cen eat ener CeCe een service available. So why do so many people use it? ‘The main draw to using Dropbox sits ease of use. Many ofits users feel quite at home with bath the web interface, desktop Pe ae ea tee Microsoft Office there are extensions available for other Coen rere eae eso nat works well, and when a product works well onthe frontline, ‘many users tend to overlook things lik privacy and security oe ce eee eg service, and its recent extension of features and abilities has| Pree aire eat a business cloud storage solution, Dropbox’ prices can vary, but y free storage withthe ability to upgrade to plus at 2TB for £7:99 per manth, and to Professional at 37B for £1658 ‘per month The business options range from Standard at ‘STB for £1250 per month to Advanced at custom storage for £15.49 per month, and finally Enterprise, whi where youll need to contact Dropbox for pricing snot the best pricing aroun ‘either With these plans, you get encryption, sharing Paper nd they're gradually increased teach plan as the pric increases.FEATURES Dropbox underwent abit ofa facelift year orso ago dropping, some ofits older features, and hiding others behind renamed. ‘elements or within obscure corners ofits service. What youre leftwith now are some fnelytuned features that present your workin the bes light, and allow it tobe shared and worked on throughout your teams and colleagues. Dropbax Files isthe main storage area, here youas an individual and a compary wil drop’ all your fles and folders. Back in 2017, Dropbax withdrew the ability to drag and drop entire folders from its web interface which meant youd have ‘to create a folder on the web interface, then drag and drop ‘the files from your computer ito the newly create folder. Tre other alternative was to use the desktop client. But, due to overwhelming feedback, the company reinstated the feature later in 2018, 50 now you can drag and drop folders, to the web interface, but only one folder ata time. Dropbox Photos was another feature that was subtly dropped inthe big 2018 update andis still sorely mssed by users today. The ability to view albums, individual images and pictures and reveal ‘timelines of images was one that we, and many other uses, realy liked ‘about Dropbox. The service has since been integrated into the Files section but has lat its viewing and ‘timeline elements, rte ne Dropbox Paper is the next biggest feature ofthe service and one that was presenti the past but pushed tothe back Since 2018, Paper has been trust forward and has become one ofthe service's best collaboration tools. Paper isa lightweight, cloud- based collaboration space, flexible workspace for teams to create, review ‘and manage documents and ideas kindof shared word processor, where you can create meeting notes and project ‘templates It works exceedingly well and is one of the most used features ofthe entire service, Transfers a feature that allows you to send large fies that dont requir any collaboration, For example, if youhave a file too large for emailto send to aremate colleague, you ‘canuploaditto Transfer, set an expiry date, then copy the ‘generated lnk to emailto the colleague. The colleague ‘anthen quickly gain access tothe Transfer service and ‘download the fle themselves After the specified time, the fileis deleted. ‘The last feature is Showcase. where you can share your work with partners and clients ona single page. You can {ide people through your content, add your own branding, {and automatically keep track of who views, downloads, ‘and comments Customer Proposal o:B Despite the drawbacks af Dropbox, it's really one of the best services you can get: Team collaborations are excellent, the ed nae osc EU tu Rm escorts Poe et eee corte Cust 2020 - and the feature list is impressive too. True, the free option could do witha few more GB to lure in the individual, but on the whole, its a superb cloud storage service. Conclusion ttn‘shee Ver | Manage hon 1 copy pat Brae ston « Peake Copy Poe pbs © BS > pCeud One > Pitures > [BVideos > S loa sk] > pCtoud Die) © S pctoud Die (P) > Automatic Upload JI cypto Folder > Google Dive My Musi A My Pies | My Videos ‘According to pCloud, over 10 milion users have switched to them from their former cloud services. People who work atthe likes of Instagram Twitter Nike, Linkedin, and many more big names use the company; andit' quite easy to see why. Cloud is designed for ease of use. Its web interface looks similar to that of Windows Explorer, andit’s incredibly quick SS Co eeu Coo kaa it offers an enhanced backup and storage area for you to ddrop your files and folders with unlimited file sizes and Peter ere crn SOR een et nent ee ete) SUT eg eee ELLE) ‘add-on for Firefox and even a Lightroom Plug-in. Cloud Drive works in much the same way asthe Dropboxclient;it bop PUT CRP CRN crt Re CRT ar UE ORT become one of the most highly rated in the market. It's easy to use, has a large, initial, free storage capacity, and some Pra Cece neat eros cust |B Search polos Dive fA oj My Music My Pictures My Videos Socal Taka Shared Coe Ce eee cae eed acts as atype of network drive to keep everything in sync oceans! There's a lotof other good features too, such as file versioning that keep your file history for up to 15-daysin the free model, and 30-days in the paid subscription models; with the option to extend file versioning to 365-days. File sharing is available for individual files and folders, and youre able to manage the shares youve created from the desktop eee ae Security is handled via TLS/SSL encryption both to and from you and the pCloud servers Plus, the content you upload to pCloudis stored on atleast three separate server locations to provide geo-redundancy. The nly downside to security ispCloud PRICING Cloud's pricing s very reasonable and offers something we ori often see fram a cloud service provider You get 10GB of storage available for free when you sign up, but you can upgrade that to the Premium 500GB plan for £399 per month, Atematively there’ Premium Plus plan available for £799, per month that offers 27S of storage. But hold on, pCoue also offer Lifetime plan with a saving of £6536 across both ofthe subscription models For a £175 one time payment, you can have SO0GS of storage, and for a £350 ‘onetime payment, you can have the 2TB plan. There's alsa a ‘Cloud Family option, thatl give upto five users access tothe 21B storage fora one-off payment of £500 Finally there's business plan but youll need to contact the pCloud sales division ta chat about your requirements and payment With regards tothe pCloud Crypto added extra: you're locking at amonthly fe of £499, or aliflime on-off payment of £125. “178 "350 Same g Sma rm meeeBarro is) | OneDrive started SCAN Cea aN TS Cede rallrg ee COuCLT UL Baum On Lu Clee at Smears Perce cng facelifts over the following years, adding new features and integrating itself seamlessly with Office while improving its overall UL The SkyDrive name was dropped in 2014 due toa lawsuit involving Bsky8, for using the word Sky. The high court ruled that Microsoft had breached BskyB's trademark, and as such, the Redmond Company redesigned its cloud service together Properties Initially, Microsoft offered its free users 10GB of storage, increasing itto as much as 25GB in 2008, but when it was redesigned in 2015, the amount dropped to SGB of storage for free use. In addition, a number of other plans were also, changed as the service began to incorporate the entire Office Eccetreee eare Despite the drop in storage, OneDrive has matured to become Pee eco er eee aed plenty of features associated with OneDrive on its own, but ae a neg eee cetera Meee er eee eee ee navigating through the files once you've uploaded them is ‘much like browsing through Windows Explorer. The Photos section lets you browse al the images in your cloud area, detailing them as atimeline by default but with the option to view as Albums; you can even view the images and photos as EE) western ‘Tags. which uses AL to separate each image nto sections like peopl, buildings, food, technology, animals and soon, ‘Sharing is a simple process of right-clicking a fle or folder reece eet eer rT the email address ofthe recipient and OneDrive will send them an email with the link provided. Managing access to the share is also easy, so you can collaborate more effectively, cere meete say ‘Thanks tothe integration with Office 365, you're able to een en eer ed new Microsoft Office content including: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and even Forms and plain text documents Picking one ofthe Office apps will open an online version ofthe software, wich will automatically ave to OneDrrive so you don't even need to have Office installed on Sores ee ere Ng encrypted and privacy protected area of OneDrive where Paneer eee retin ta rent teeter authentication in place here, alongside other security processes, and for free users, youre able to store a maximum cee eer eer eater PeesPRICING ‘Asstated, you get 5GB free storage only intially That can features over ther installed counterparts, be upgraded to 1006Bfor £1.99 per month but youNon* Fy £59.09 per year you get Office 365 Personal hich gives gztan Office 365 icense wth those optons.On thefip jeu TTB of storage on nerve lis alicence for Ofce 365 side, you do get access to Office for the web, which means for Windows or macOS, as well as improved features beyond youl still be able to use Word, Excel and soon from within the fee option. Moving up for £7999 per year there's Office OneDrive and from officecom - and its worth noting that 365 Home which alows upto sixusers to install and use Office ‘the online versions of Word etc. are only missing a few 365 while also giving them ITB of storage in OneDrive each. Conclusion Microsoft gets a lot of bad press, Puget ng also to be expected since it's the most Peer Raat eoCeUt eciai ted Tea Ur Crauut about the Redmond Company, or of its actions in the past, you must admit Sao easter cel CU Beare erate eg more free storage available; that may Sean Gear E ultimately opt for the subscription PEWS ane earl CLERC Paarea ie uycs inn CETop Cloud Storage Providers ) iCloud rvreea erate} PCR Cura RU) October 2011 as BYTE ce) Sree! previous subscription-based PMO CMLen cacy. ee CuPc Cet muir tut Ret Monae ice yy Crue cuca ict last Ue ae Oo ure Ce A of over 20 million after just one Pes eae TD wrsinutctinscon You've got tohand it to Apple, when it does something era ee eed eer Pete eter ee ete ene Per atone ered Pee aa eet Se eae ico Coes Dt cenit ‘The big step for iCloud came when Apple made it available to Pete eee ne tere is Prete ee a ee cemery alongside the continuing rise of fortunes for Apple the company was able to pout vast amounts of money and resources into the service, making it one ofthe most ose tas ‘The service has seen several important updates over the Seer eee ea ‘Apple's world, greatly resembles iOS. Another good move by ‘Apple, keep everything looking more or less the same and the userbase won't get confused when they see something ice Pere ane eecced offered 5GB of free storage, and you can upload via the web interface or trough the iCloud Drive folder on your Apple device. However the power of iCloud doesn't end with storage; the service has many other features built-in, such as| Find my Mac or find my iPhone, iCloud Photos allows you to Peer ha eta ee eet ees Fmiaeer enone ei ear ea ar set | by right-clicking and selecting Share, where you can opt to send alink via email, message and soon Messages are synced over iCloud and you can share and backup all your information, bookmarks and history from Safari toiCloud, Dore Crea Cnn i tea ea nly available for Apple devices, however, the Cupertino Company realised aversion of iCloud for Windows in mmid-2019, which is now available from the Windows 10 Store,PRICING {Cloud doesri offer much in the way of services beyond storage, such as wth OneDrive offering Office 365 with increasing subscription models However Apple's Cloud payment plans ae very reasonable. iCloud There's 5GB of space on Cloud for fre, beyond that expect ene topay 79p per month for SOGB,then £2.49 per month for 20068, and finally £599 per month fr 2TB of storage LTT aE Tt ] te) een) Bll an00- 047800 mu—— man) ‘Amazon Drive launched in 2011 and since then has undergone eee eg eet one eae eet s ‘numberof features on offer The changes Amazon has implemented havertt always gone down too well with the users eee Ce eeu bbe done with the rime account and what cat, and whether Cee ace Coreen ia ee gree The problems stem from the company dropping or reinstating features across different countries. For example, China and Brazil have different Amazon Drive features to the rest ofthe cere eee oer een tg ‘customers paying more for the same subscription service Pent Sett canis generat Te eeane te The initial, free account offers you SGB of storage; that ‘seems tobe the case for most ofthe world (but we could be wrong). You get a simple, drag and drop web interface, a downloadable client confusingly called Amazon Photos, the Pee Lune eatanc? eee eee See eee ee ce Ceuta ange aes storage area is split into three folders by default: Documents, Pictures and Videos lick on one of the folders to view its contents, and you can synchronise withthe client, or view the content via the website. Simple and effective Amazon's cloud services are the stuff of legend in the PLCC a CMO ee Lc potential storage, and teraflops of computing power that's within the top 50 fastest supercomputers in the world, Petre ou oe ca CEU au ee eee eel erm Ble -t Amazon Drive. Sharing can be done by individual fle, groups of files, or entire folders. 1's a case of highlighting the files/folders in question and clicking the Share button atthe top of the screen. From there, you can generate a lnk, email the recipient, or share itthrough Facebook or Twitter. Seo ee ee setup to access Amazon Drive. Beyond that, there's not much else to add concerning the main storage area, The Amazon Photos section isa confusing element, though. eae ee ee separate entity tothe other storage features, making you think thatt somehow has a different set of options; it doesnt. Clicking on Amazon Photos opens a separate storage area with ro way back to the original other than the back button on the browser. In here areal the images youve uploaded to your Prererrs rn Meant et te erent they can be viewed in different styles: a collage-type view, small thumbnails lightly bigger thumbnail, and even bigger ‘thumbnails You can highlight the images, look a them eee ee eae See an ee ad Se eg ee ea PRICING The pricing structure for Amazon Drive is quite good, but alittle odd at the same time. Beyond the free SGB per ‘Amazon user, you can buy 10068 for £1699 per year, and TTB for £7399 per year. But anything more wil cost you ‘an additional £79.99 per terabyte, so 278 of storage will set you back £158.98, andif you wanted 30TB, then youre looking at €2399:70 per year.Backup your photos iceoe Amazon DriveGoogle Cloud - In Focus( IndexGoogle Cloud - In Focus Google's Cloud Apps Google has invested billions into building and delivering a range of cloud-based services and apps for the home and, office. Email, document editing, spreadsheet creation, website building, storage and collaborations are all covered with an Peeper cucs Google is famous, or rather infamous, for pumping millions into the next big project only to drop it after a few years, or even less in some circumstances. Take Googles for example, a service that was to be Google's answer to Facebook. While good, it never really enjoyed the kind of virtual footfall that Facebook ever did, and as such Google closed it down mid-2019. Imagine if you'd invested time and effort to create a personal, or work-based Google+ page only to have the rug pulled out from under you? GSuite maemo( Google's Cloud Apps Gl Grails one ofthe ISO ost poplar web based, coud email solutions available today With everything from custom themes to ross platform compatiblity it’s litle wonder that there are over ene blion active Gall accounts. campanysmass solution. With 15GB of free storage available and solutions fr upto 30TB.for a considerable monthly fee Drive i considered one of the better SAAS for bath hame and SMB use Google Drive isthe M + With Google Docs, you're able to write, edit and collaborate with anyone. This cloud app is accessible from ary connected device, and the documents can be saved as Microsoft Word, Rich “Text, Plain Text, Pub, or even as a web page. EEA aniiyto create documents Google has offeredus the capacity tocreateeitand collaborate with online spreadsheets Sheets works very much the same as Docs in that it’ cloud-based app available fom ary online device that allo youto sae inthe, popular office formats. Dire Together withthe Asyoucan well EECTED azine sles completes the more popular office-based productivity apps with an online presentation cloud app. There are ‘numerous templates avilable, and, as before you can save the presentation in a variety of different formats. Google ZED atendarisa feature-rich, cloud based app that allows you toadd events and share them with your friends family, or co-workers. YYoucanimport pre defned calendar templates intemational holidays and celebrations create emai ‘based agendas and much more. SITES Although not quite ‘as popular as it once was, Google Sites hhas seen an upgrade in recent years to bring tin ine withthe ‘ther Google cloud apps. The vweb page creation app is now far easier to use and manage, and the integration of other Google apps issimplifed. Described as PUD a uriied, cloud based ‘communications service, Google Hangouts is where youcan participate in text, voice or video chats wit other individuals or ‘groups. It’s built into both Gmail ‘and Googlet ands also available in mobile versions. Google Photos LAL is a photo and video sharing cloud service that launched mi 2015. With t you can auto-backup all your images from your Google ‘account enabled devices as well as edit and share your content.Google Cloud - In Focus Google Drive Collaborations one of them 2 TED ros inprtant aspects,and features, ofthe madem cloud torage service. Google Drve's contents are private uti you ° apt to share them either individual o asa group Youcan even create a publi accessed share for your Drive contents 15GB of free space is very {good even by today's high volume standards Ifyou need more though, then youcan upgrade to 10068, for just £1.59 per month or 2TB of storage for amere £799 per month For the SSMB user you can even go malls Upto 30TB for £23999 peer month, interact with your phone's securityGmail EEO ue a ea eee UCR uC UC RuCl nte may lack some of the advanced features that an in-house email server can offer, there's still alot you can do with Gmails easy to use interface. Group emails are great, butthey can become ‘You can easly switch between multiple CETTE) 2 cistracton when youre tying to work FRE TITEDD Gmai accounts by clicking on your profile eee eee ee Saree ea ee eee =— es ee a := sl @® jomg © Mterimeet Ind part of tis. . nS fog & Moe * prsarmo-s. ws fea — ‘a | animate pores BT fi conan EAREQEDD elements tothe compary’semai service, ESL val present you wth abewidering number ‘but they/ve been replaced with the ‘of features that you can activate and use ‘Advanced tab now. Click on Settings andthen the Advanced within Gmail Add a signature, Desktop Notifications, Personal tab-In here are numerous features, such as Preview Pane and Level Indicators, create Labels, use anew Theme, send mail as Custom Shortcuts another account, create filters and block addresses, and even alter the default tex style there's plenty ta include. “Moe 8Zz Google Cloud - In Focus Calendar Google's Calendar cloud app can do far more than simply letting you know when your doctor's appointment is due. With it, you can share multiple calendars, create countdown timers, receive daily agendas to your inbox and much more. aes ee cme ert Tatar te Peele ieee eerie ‘Subscribe to calendar sinunit = a Create new calendar Browse calendars of interest From URL bee Import 1 surprisingly easy to adda video Thevarious Calendar views: Day Week Month, EE LLEEED alto any Calendar appointment ll RBEARE) and 4 Days are fairy self-explanatory The yoineedt dois lk onthe Create Schedule view, though its your events or button in Calendar setup the event, nd click Add Video Call. appointments in chronlagical oder with he abit to expand When he imsitees receive thee Calendar event email therell__andediteach event accordingly If you have the Birthdays be alinkto a GoogleHangouts ideo chat session ‘options enabled in My Calendars youlleven have your Google contacts birthdays included. » st = mun axis = Se TITELDocs Calendar/Docs Gl On the surface, Google docs might appear to be just another, simplistic word processor; albeit one that's online and cloud-based. However, dig alittle deeper and you'll come across eee neue ete ts ‘The days of using the keyboard, for entering text are seriausly ‘numbered. Ifyou use Google Chrome, and youhave a microphone attached to your system, click the Tools option in the Docs menu followed by Voice Naa OL Typing. Make sure the microphone is working and click the Mic icon to start talking Click the icon again to stop Voice Typing, When youie collaborating on Be Se a document with numerous people it canbe difficult to track ‘changes Click onthe Pencil ican inthe upper right comer of the Docs interface and select Suggesting. This tracks changes, andallows ather collaborators to accept o reject the edt. Decs has good number af fonts om which REDD 0 choose hen creating anew document {you want, though simplyclckon the fonts be. fllowed by Mre Fonts. This brings up anew window displaying hundreds more from which to choose. Just click the fort start using it. snag singe ge ‘S-Bit Adventures inn CEGoogle Cloud - In Focus Sheets There are efferent ways of geting UPEAUSDD stared with Google Sheets Youcan create anew spreadsheet, upload an existing spreadsheet from a computer or use a template from the Templates Gallery, to create a spreadsheet witha specific purpose. Sharing and collaboration within Sheets is ‘easy, Simply click the Share button inthe comer ofthe screen, then add the Email collaborators and enter the details of those with whom you wish to share the fe. Tis allows you to edt and collaborate on| the Google Sheet document online ‘When you upload a spreadsheet into ESC Soosle Drive youhave the choice tokeep your spreadsheet in the original format or convert itinto the Google Dacs format Ifyou dont convert the spreadsheet, you may not beable to access it collaboratively within your teams, Pros and.con at ‘lL Destinatior “ner 2018 top of the main Sheets window), These include functions such asmail merge, Google Analytics and more,“ Sheets/Photos Photos taking an important picture, only ta drop if you click onthe Info button for anon- ‘your device into the sea moments later Providing you have a smartphone image it tells you which device taok the picture {good connection that image is backed-up and categorised and that device's settings a the time, with atime and date stamp. Each image stored in Photosiseitable with You can easily share your images DUEL arumberoffiters alongwith alterngthe — SAAR RARLULSID by creating a Shared Album orby contrast and colours and rotating The effects sharing individual images with are minimal but with the rightimage, they canbe quite stunning. your Gmail contacts. You can even post the image to other sites such as Facebook or Twitter.Zz Google Cloud - In Focus ) How to Use Google Drive Cesena oor a ie CoN Ce une ac Cee documents in the Cloud. These files and documents can then be accessed from any tablet, phone or computer via the Google Drive software. Not only is this a great way to free up space on your devices, it also lets you access your files from almost anywhere. ; . - . ‘ ‘, @ searcu © current FoLver as ge Es rtamaeoncytokyon ‘nt ein matt dot can count aoe ohuaer eng pat how bor fe an dangehienc are daplged (List or Grid), Ovw © pisecay contRoLs Clckth New bution open anew documert, nga a hrs cet Spraishee resertaton trmer dren hate resorted Te ear on sy aces the Grve stings © Fouvers @© vrtoan ist Your preset Google Divefeldesareshownhere.along - Whenyeuupload malil items to Goel ve vith oy thatyoshove created Ck Meta see Labels the Ulondbor appear show yuthe progress of cechtem anHow to Use Google Drive INSTALLING BACKUP AND SYNC - PC/MAC Tre fist thing you need to dois check your Google Drive acess status You can do ths at drive googlecomstart. IF youhave access, you will see a blue Download button Sew eve Fase Click on Download Backup and syne and follow ‘the instructions to instal the software on your computer. The site will automatically detect whether itis PC or Mac. * ‘must do ths before you start the dawnload. You willbe asked to signin again and wll then be asked to sync. This creates anew folder on your computer which s used as the storage folder. et Oe IRR yogle DriveZz Google Cloud - In Focus How to Use Gmail Gmail is an integral element of the Google app suite, an email platform that works seamlessly on whichever OS you use, quickly becoming a key part of your daily routine. EE: cane @ marsoxes © ves These inks tou dpa the messages in those Labes alow yout categorsyour message iro ‘eae ara cg wales peepee ctr een trout uread neages fe thanthe al Inesages eet mre han oe eel or ter eae deraties cuntwnd Uhr Mo eae s 86 CHAT CONTROLS ‘This section shows alist of your avilable Chat contacts, as wells containing the various chat controls: Add Contact, Status Update, et You can read more about Gmail Chat later in this section, ery Co ene etSEARCH BOX Search for any message or contact in your Gmail inbox. Clicking onthe small arrow atthe end of the search box allows you to refne your search in several different ways MESSAGE CONTROLS This set of buttons only appears when viewing a ‘message. They alow you to archive, delete or report the message as spam, as well as letting you move the ‘message toa particular mailbox or apply label. The ‘More button reveals even more controls, CONVERSATION ‘Gmail displays multiple messages from a contact in conversation format. IF someone replies to your message, both the reply and the original message are shown stacked in the window. You can expand the conversation to make it easier to read, QUICK REPLY Click anywhere inthis boxto start a quick reply to the last message in the conversation. To Farward message, click the Forward tab inthe quick reply window that opens. Quick reply offers the same formatting options as creating anew message does HOW TO COMPOSE A NEW EMAIL Google has incorporated a unique way to eee atu eee eee eae Roe ety Se eas nett! Pee ea cee eect ne aret eect leaner eee Biteic ceric) Tee Se eee ee The new compose window contains man Teac er) eee ts Pelee eae a een the bottom let you contro formatting and a! nea tot i ee Rees ees (_ How to Use Gmail Gl GMAIL ON ANDROID & IOS Me ga ead Heyes ney et ty AP etsy nce downloaded, the app should automatical eet eee tert our computer (hopefully, this is also the one with which Meet See irri nner ee ren eg reer er eet aetnaGoogle Cloud - In Focus GREEN CLOUDS Global warming sa excuse the pun hot topic at the moment. The arguments for and against; those who believe our climate is changing rapidly, due to our industry, versus those who dont, nd the impact of pollution aver cost have been ongoing for a wile However, the problem isnt going away in fact. depending ‘onto whom yaulisten its possibly going to get alt worse very quickly Using cloud solutions to help reduce the environmental impact cof mater technology may seem somewhat counterproductve. ‘ter alla cloud service runs onan extensive lster farm of ‘mary, powerful servers inside a datacentre all requiring alarge amount of energy to run. However, that’s quite the opposite way of thinking, Consider a scenario involing a thousand different companies, allof which have server rooms filed with several servers and other equipment The total energy requirements to keep these thousand server rooms up and running are quite substantial, But what ial those companies decided to adopt cloud approach to their technology needs and, instead, used. virtualisation technology within a laud service. The service could essentially house all of those thousand companies Tey ee ea Mens Soe ighly the equivalent to 11 igin the UK. Perc rs ec aoe neone li eee ees to about 2% of the word’ global needs within the resource limitations of just a fraction ofthe datacentre’ cluster Cloud service providers ae, in fact the leading divers in emissions savings, while reducing technologys impact on the environment through resource virtualisation and data centres utilising renewable energy sources. These solutions can include security systems, computing technology and storage efficiencies, to name but afew. Energy is typically last due to a companys server underuse, causing servers tositidle and building what's known as e-waste. Datacentres that utilise cloud ‘technologies require less equipment to monitor systems and manage workfiows freeing up the energy typically consumed bbymachines and reducing the total physical server footprint Furthermore, such ersironments provide the flexibly expand a company's technology infrastructure as its available funds increase Tnessence,a coud technology datacentre is capable of housing, the virtual server rooms often if not hundreds of thousands of individual omparies Each vitual server room saves the individual company money. as well ascuting dawn onthe eco-foatprinta server room generates through power use air-condition and soon See ee Syren companies invalved mané ees er While its not a ee eee ett( Cloud Technologies: The Environment RENEWABLE ENERGY Using renewable energy sources is a worldwide goal for ‘most companies these days, However isnot easy fr smaller businesses to adopt Datacentres requir allot of power to run but youll be surprised to discover that, overall they are far more efficient than mast mid-sized inner-city compary buildings Google, for example, recently announced that’ the fst large-scale datacentre to achieve 100% renewable energy two years running, "Our fst priority sto use as litle energy as possible, operating our ofices and facilities sustainably with a strong focus on our data centres” said Neha Palmer, Director of Operations, Energy and Location Strategy, Google. The company utilises a number strategies to ensure it’ energy efficient through better server designs and advances in artificial iteligence, a Google datacentre is now seven times, ‘more energy-efficient than it was ust five years ago, Plus, Google also ensures that the energyit uses comes from wind or solar farms built near the facilities and that 100% ease See ae cert! eee ues eer THE FUTURE Global T energy consumption equates to around 986 ofthe total environmental CO2 impact, of which a traditional datacentre ‘was only smal faction. These days, the datacente's emissions barely scrape the surface but overall emissions are sil high, ‘Some companies wonttbe able to intialise a total move into the cloud but for those that can the reduction in both cost and environmental impact will make a significant difference tothe future, Butts not just IT alone, take into consideration the travel impact. the environmental cos of commuting daly Perhapsin the future we canal wrk from home, inthe cloud, connected to ‘our workplaces? of the heat waste from the servers i recycled back into the system for use elsewhere. And isnot just Google that's onboard with energy-saving. most, fnotall datacentres now adhere to strict environmental guidelines and policies, ensuring they ae between 90 to 100% energy efficient. ec eee ey Ce eee ee tty imption of eneray reduce their See ts erent onesMicrosoft Cloud - In FocusMicrosoft Cloud - Tn Focus Pore a ua ners cloud services is as equally impressive as that of Google. Nene ue neue the usual storage, email and sharing services Ronee CeCe nas it also includes cloud-based versions of Office and other apps. eRe Cie a ep ls) CUM) What are Microsoft's Cloud Apps? OneDrive 365 Stent emote Xonar)Zz Microsoft Cloud - In Focus What are Microsoft's Cloud Apps? Like Google, Microsoft has invested a considerable sum bringing its cloud foundations to the end-user and SMB, as well as much bigger enterprise clients. OneDrive is the more prominent cloud service that the company offers, but Microsoft has also unleashed its Office S| OFFICE IN THE CLOUDS There are quite a lot of cloud services on offer from the Redmond Company, but for the sakes of the consumer end- user, these are by far the most utilised. OneDrive i Microsoft’ answer to cloud storage for both consumers and business users alike. The basic plan comes in with a free 5GB of storage available, but you can soan expand that to ‘50GB or 17B al for afaitly reasonable monthly fe. OneDrive Youmaynot be aware ofthis, but the worlds mast used word processor s available asa cloud application. We are of course, talking about MS Word Using its latest version you can log in to your Microsoft account and se the online version of Word in your browser as you would the desktop version. Prone ‘As you expect it’ not just word processing that Microsoft has ‘exported tots cloud servers. Excelis, also available through the Office Online portal and you can use a fully functional madern version ofthe popular spreadsheet app via your Microsoft account. came OL Often ridiculed as the bane ofthe office meeting Microsofts PowerPoint gets a bad reputation You crit deny though what a powerful, and wel-used resource it actully is. you don't have a locally installed version then the company's new cloud-based app will suit you just as well ena OLB OLSON eT Microsoft's OneNote may nat be used quite as much by the consumer as its other Office apps. butt still a remarkably handy tool. You can share notes with multiple users, drawings, screen clippings and audio ‘commentaries, ll with this digital notebook. ‘Microsoft Swayis described asa dial stoyteling ‘app Its designed fr creating presentations in an ‘easier-toview format than that of PowerPoint; in fact think of itas an alternative to PowerPoint There's alat you get fromit, andi certainly worth exploring as) Microsoft has had some version ofan email client since its early Windows 311 days, Outlook replaced MS Malin late fe, and although the ccompary has re-adopted the Mail name once more tistill essentially Outlok Mails the company’ cloud -based app that interacts with its cloud-based email solution, Ng MS Calendar Onin is a pretty sel EEA explanatory app. Ifyou use te desktop version wth Windows 84 and 10 then youltbe able to get to all your appointments and events via the ‘online cloud app version Fy Launched in 2003 and purchased by Microsoft in 2011 forthe princely sum of $85 bilion Skype isone ofthe Intemets most prominent success ‘tories With an estimated 300 milion monthly active users, i's litle wonder Microsoft brought Skype into ts cloud services 7 crease ae See J Office 365 ann CEAa) Microsoft Cloud - In Focus OneDrive DOP eR Ree USCC ce eR oc a) business and home. It doesn't offer as much free storage out-of-the-box as Google's service, but the pricing for expansion is quite competitive. though there's only 56 of storage Photos stored on your Onerive account can BREED svaicbie whichis stl qute alt for mast [GRASS be easy navigated and explored through the fols) you can easily upgrade to 10068 All Photos options from the main OneDrve forjust £1.99 per month Beyond 1006B you can move upto menu You also be abet create Albums Tags ancishare them ‘TB of storage for ust £59.99 per year or optfr themore with athers. comprehensive solution ofading more users (sx with 17B avalable each —— = Agreat feature of OneDrive isits ‘Sharing content from pseu newly added Personal Vault. Here Sei a abe your OneDrive account is you can store sensitive filesin a ‘exceptionally easy You can heightened secure environment, complete with two-step ‘teate links tothe shared folder, email the people wth whom verification, which auto-locks after twenty minutes of inactivity. you're sharing itor even post the share ta any ofthe popular Social media platformsOffice 365 Office 365 is a hybrid solution, in that OneDrive/Office 365 Gl 's cloud-based while still being installed on your computer; think of it as offering the best of both worlds. It's the most-used productivity STE RUC Run oe CULV OR eC Ur ur CCR Tne aetna ee ‘As Micrasoft Office 365 is subscription- based. it means that your versions of the individual apps: Word, Excel PowerPoint, and soon are always going to be updated to the latest release. So there's no concern over compatbilty, across versions, with other Office 365 users. PRICING As Ofice 365 is party cloud based, STEAD you can setup better collaborations with other users than with previous Office versions. In Wor, Excel or PowerPoint its possible to have muttiple people editing a document at the same time. Er xecutive summary Re: ut [ap esseaneasntewenecirsoanancrsooa ni | fay Contoso? ‘What’ more with the Home SS AECLED Subscription you get office 365 for PC, Mac, tablets and phones (forup to five users in your home) pius with the company's OneDrive loud service, TT of storage. You can even ty itfor free foralimited time What is Office 365? Collaborations one ofthe many SES EID benefits of working with a cloud based service. Tobe able to have ‘multiple people working onthe same project from around the world, in eal-time is singularly impressive. Ofice 365 takes the Cloud, and make sure Messages is ou o d a °— ST = =|: 2g 5 al — © ST cette nmeconmiet oo =z= Apple iCloud - In Focus iCloud Desktop Documents & Folders With mac0S, iOS and iPadOS, you can not only store your documents on iCloud but also files Preece eset roan cern ance CEN EO ee Re la Ce next to Desktop & Documents Folders Itmay take ime toset up. High Sierra and all0S devices must have 10S 10 or later. ‘oF 05, Under the iloud Drive option, there are browser at wwwicloud.cam and sign in. Open falders called Desktop and Documents. These contain all files the iCloud Drive and the Desktop flder is there. You can do this currently stored on your Mac's desktop ar Documents folder. on any Internet-capable device. Deh mi( iCloud Desktop Documents & Folders/The Future of iCloud The Future of iCloud poets ota Perea oe likes of tvOS 14 and newer Reco oars iPhone 12, due or release later in2020, will see significant improvements in renee ts piece er tare Pn cea) Box, which would make for some interesting predictions of how iCloud will Function in orn APPLE TV AND iCLOUD Launched in November 2019, Apple TV Plus is Apple’ video-on demand service ‘equivalent to Netflic Thelaunch of Disneys around the same time did put something of. ddampener on the Apple TVPlus launch but the service is strong enough to compete, and there's same exiting content already available OF cours allthis contents coming from the Apple cloud servers, streaming va the compary/s former Project Pe servers that are designed for increased speed and operated more directly by Apple despite most of the Cloud content being hosted on ‘Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure platforms. Now based in Foulum in Denmark, Apples newest datacentre ‘outside of the US. is helping to boost the content of not just Apple TVPlus but alse host millions of iCloud user's data 1 also worth nating that the main draw ofthe energy requirement for Apple's server farms comes fram renewable energy sources such as wind farms off the coast of Denmark, with more renewable sources being part funded by Apple for Denmarkin 2030. Its also rumoured that Appleis looking into the newest wave of quantum computing experiments. recent announcement from a leaked Google paper indicated it had performed a form of calulation previously thought impossible on even the most powerful madern supercomputer Researchers achieved Quantum Supremacy wich, in layman's terms, means a calculation that would have taken a supercomputer 10,000 years to perform, took anew generation {quantum computer ust 200 seconds. Apple's interest, therefor, isjustied. Ifthe new generat af quantum computing servers can handle these kinds o calculations then sorting and sifting data to millions of users as wellas containing and serving nest-gen Augmented Reality, isacinchCloud Technologies: Nadie U=cclgte AL Artifical Intelligence, has evolved significantly over the last decade, Where once it was perceived as something we'd probably only achieve in the next hundred years or so, it's now nee ce ere tC rnc unt ts socks off many futurists, it may astonish you to discover that Alis already here. Lee intelligent bots that use the complex computing capabilities of the cloud to provide a Sr ey what needs to be done, and the learning side, that will actively retain knowledge: ‘you. Both of these aspects are inherent to every intelligence bot, regardless of limited to just chatbots who interface with you. Sie ened ls Consider any earch you conduct via the Internet or some form of database. Regardless of whether isa search for artists on Spotify; the latest fashion from the website ofa high street store, or electrical goods from Amazon, each search employs level of Ato help form the results Machine er ees ad requir, and present advertising for products in which you ‘may be interested based on your past views and searches. ee cn a search in YouTube for Christmas adverts from the 80s, brings up suggestions for past episodes of popular TV programs from the 70s and 80s. While random searches ‘through a friend's timeline can result in Facebook displaying alist of potential friends or even products, that your friends Peo Oe ena ets eee ee aan ee Cece recurring websites, buys the same products from the supermarket, or watches the same content day in and day Nee ee ee sites, products, music videos and so on thats not too dissimilar from what they're used to consuming. Occasionally, the AI spits out something new thats outside ofthe user's regular requests, to gauge how the user responds. postive response builds onthe profile and leads to more areas of advertising and suggestion, whereas a negative response forces the Ato rethink and perhaps include something else further down the lineCLOUD AI ‘The problem for companies who sel products or monitor customers, ee ee ee too large to manage. This is where the cloud comes in. Thanks tothe data-intensive workloads a cloud service can handle it’ relativly Pe eR nce tee combining the programming ofthe A with the power ofthe cloud. Siren e eaten tae ana ee et poe eee ee Ce ae ay Po ee eee een ss eee eee ay Pe te ea ue eee ee cay for offering better and more accurate AL solutions for companies, IT'S NOT ALL BAD Considering ALin light of gathering consumer data it does come ‘across somewhat ominous: like an allseeing eye pervading, er earn en enc Pun tg ee cen Le ce a rere ree Ce eee ee eee and technology engineering, education, and manufacturing. AL doesnt just worm its way into our lives and peep a our every move Potente eer cers Pecans Of course, we wort mention the two cloud-based AI created bots that Pere ce ee eneCloud for BusinessCloud for Business We've looked at how cloud services benefit and support the home user, but what about Rema eces ‘Small to medium business owners are often fighting a losing battle when it comes to Cue meen aed yas them, with cost the major reason for lack of ence once Thankfully, the cloud has.a lotto offer the SMB user. It will grow with your business and it can be relatively inexpensive to Teac ee eee ee eC Gare ees Cee cee cscs rT) Green Cloud Providers 100 Cloud eCommerce Examples 110 fierce lence Ue eee teear es cred Private Cloud Benefits Tee uence ae 114 Hybrid Cloud Benefits sembdrabetacon aCloud for Business Cloud Services for SMB/SME GOOD FOR BUSINESS Cloud-based tools and services that are best suited for SMB/SMEs are quite varied, depending on the type of business you run. Here then are ten examples of what's on offer. marketing and social media cestomersis a great benefit when it comes engagement are an essential part ofthe modem business. _togaining new business. Tales of companies going under due Youre no longer limited toword of mouth within the town in _toalackf security with their customer database areal too uihich you operate, wth cloud communications services youre a familar, Cloud services can greatly enhance your security and part af the global market ‘that of your customers. € 5 + te f j f C hADADA neds tbe esl rough work andeastners om around foryuandvhat yout sling Goud comping sere that ward conect tothe eves hat our buses les taeroreConmarcsoitaareielinhelprgyouwin Nome attire and hee nthe wera castor or Inrecistamandgangroundinanewer-competiie mate enloe a based eyes ta ing youtine fois onthe corbusnes otiCloud Services for SMB/SME Gl Small businesses are increasingly BOSE turing to cloud-based accounting and financial solution ove the traditional desktop accountng software Cloud fnancil services offer secure acess tothe company’ financial record, are cheaper toestablsh and allow you to access your records rom any Intemet connected devie a & ai 2 a > @ ‘The biggest draw tousing a cloud service EE isuncoubtey secure and reliable data storage. Mary SMBs opt for acomplete cloud storage solution keeping al thir data online to avoid data disasters and allowing 2477 access tt Most, though, tend tolean toward a hybrid solution where both onsite and cloud storage solutions are at work Seng bing end rating your om omar deste ahighloelteperise Colleges, training centres and Ce TEED academies canall benefit from the vast range of cloud-based ‘e-Learning services, Whether it learning a new language, training far work-based qualifications or creating your own learning content, there are cloud solutions available to create whatever youneed. tocreate and maintain; and that’s often quite ‘expensive, Using cloud-based email provision isa cheaper ‘and hassle-free solution that the SMB/SME should really ‘consider adopting.Zz Cloud for Business Team Collaboration Cloud Examples The ability to work together on a single project, no matter where you are in the world, is what communications technology was originally designed for; consider John McCarthy's concepts FRU am eee snes oe eeu WORKING TOGETHER There are countless cloud collaboration services available, which can be quite bewildering, Here are ten proven business solutions to help you fine-tune your choice of provider. One ofthe more popular Hudal offers a secure cloud collaboration DPE US OLED cloud collaborations sevices LPDIEAD service for customers such as the available for businessesis Department for Work and Pensions the NHS, from Dropbox With companies such as National Geographic, _and the US. Department of Homeland Security Files tasks and University of Cambridge, A and more the services designed team communications ae all handled easily and can deliver tascale and grow as your cllaboration with others does. ‘exceptional results for your business. » huddle Gitrichasa long history of Aside from offering Ue SSD working with colaboration GOOGLE BUSINESS APPS ]ARuNMSHi! services. The company's newest solution for the cloud-based resource is Sharefil, which provides asimple, home user, Google's apps also cater tothe business user. The secure way to collaborate wth teams from around the world. collaboration tools are the same as whats on offer for free; however, a business can demand more content, space and unique customisations. § ShareFile Gogaie ares tor surest tyThe business side CEES OILED of Office 365 offers considerably ‘more than what he home user gets For a reasonable monthly ost you get all the usual Office 365 apps, alongside MS Teams, ‘SharePoint, and OneDrive for business ll of which make for an ‘excellent collaboration suite of tools This excellent service gives teams everything, they need to stayin sync, hit deadlines and reach their goal. Users can share collaborate and focus on what's needed to bring together the project or ‘customers. Ita streamlined service that’ very visual and comes together really well There's aton of features, and the service is continually growing. % asana C Team Collaboration Cloud Examples Gl Box prides itself on offering a simple, centralised service where your teams can manage and. collaborate on projects more effectively The workflow is easly managed, and alt ofthe setting-up processes are handled automaticaly. lg ‘Yammer s apart ofthe Office 365 business suite that focuses on social networking and team collaborations I's a concise and easy touse service that works seamlessly with Office and fosters ‘great cllaborations across the workforce. ‘Tella i an excellent productivity and collaboration platform It's designed to help your business increase its workflow with teams from anywhere in the word. Its a reasonably priced integration _app lke Evernote, Google Hangouts, Dropbox and more. It’s litle wonder thatthe likes of PayPal, Kickstarter, Adobe and Par use its services, Direle TRELLO ‘Ovum Research has ranked MangaApes asthe best mid-market collaboration services in arecent enterprise social rnetwarking report. The company's collaboration tals are ‘excellent and cover every aspect ofthe cloud service to deliver scalable solution for your business. EON} AF MangoApps THE SOCIAL COLLABORATION NETWORK inn CENa AVAXHOME?nee cd providing you various content: LC eC a Ee ee eS mea eas ces Unlimited satisfaction one low price Cheap constant access to piping hot media Protect your downloadings from Big brother Safer, than torrent-trackers 18 years of seamless operation and our users' satisfaction PRE Uys ETC emer ol Tei AvaxHome - Your End Place We have everything for all of your needs. Just open https://avxlive.icuZz Cloud for Business ) Cloud eCommerce Examples The ability to lower costs, respond quickly to any market opportunity and accelerate sales are why many businesses are turning to cloud-based eCommerce applications. There are ee nee eae Cee eee coc e ‘CLOUD SALES Businesses need to consider many aspects when it comes to choosing the eCommerce platform that best suits their needs, Out of the many, here are ten excellent examples to investigate. Hailed as one ofthe best eCommerce EAM cloud services available. Shopify covers PW Ac aaa ls Lacey pretty much every aspect of sales For your business. It's easy to use, has avast range of services, andcan Using Yahool as an e-Commerce platform may not be every be customised for your company. ‘company's fist choice, However, Yahoo! Aabaco Small Business| isone ofthe leading eCommerce services Ikoffers a stable, secure and scalable platform, aswell as best in class SEO and e-shopping integrations. EA shopify YAHOO! Aabaco Small Business -{feCOMMERCE ¢v volusion ED wrstrptictincoe(Cloud eCommerce Examples Gl 1ShoppingCartis an allin-one ‘Although not as wellknawm as some of PATE e-Commerce solution offering — LACT the other e-Commerce solutions inthis list, range of packages that cover all Bdcartis by no means a minnow in the online aspects of getting your online store up and running, There's a shopping ocean With competitive SMB price plans and plenty high degree of fexbilty both fr the business and the products _of technology available ito which the business can graw and your sling plus it’s easy to manage and update ‘expand, 3dcartis an excellent choice TshoppingCart® =) adcart Surprsingly With fewest ble ao eeysanintesing aon hs 15 at [ED siecerecomnaceserce tyne sgrving. EGE) ssmucrot aheanwrigh ecommerce patorn buts mates andy hee ee ‘Simos he corpaneshere but canst andcheapeCommarcesoutonthenWxmaynalbewert the sMBuser eat ha hey eqae Wh nomen es imesigning Wieitnortbe aletoconytewahiebg, —atsingtanaclonand pane pocesingfe) anda comerceramesitsataasteanrcetocoside, © geatseletinel eos alae tsanea tar WiX Etsy 9) MCART 4\Pinnacecor:Zz Cloud for Business Cloud Accounting Examples ‘Small business owners no longer need to purchase expensive and time-consuming accounting software, thanks to cloud accounting services. The benefits of accounting in the cloud are well documented: better security, disaster recovery, and accessible data. But Pero car ‘CLOUD FINANCIALS Atypical cloud accounting service offers invoicing, banking, purchasing, expenses, and tax management, with the ability to integrate add-ons such as PayPal. ClearBooks is an excellent start when researching cloud accounting for your business With it you can create customisable invoices, set automatic payment reminders, and schedule recurring invoices. I's also excellent for keeping up with your tax returns and managing your banking, mac ClearBooks Online accounting to free your time © Aconing io FreshBooks you can FLD se 192 hours ayearjsttyusngis sofware Haled as neo the eastest tose and implement cloud accounting series Festioks fanmanage every aspect of your smalbusinessacourting needs ogee th the abit to egrate numerous apps FReBoows cloud accounting eee