Times Insider|‘Where Does Cloud Storage Really Reside? And Is It Secure?’
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/23/insider/where-does-cloud-storage-really-reside-and-is-it-secure.html
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Ask The Times
Ask The Times, a Times Insider feature, draws on New York Times expertise to answer questions about current events, science, sports, culture and whatever else is making headlines.
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A reader asks: “Where does cloud storage really reside? And is it secure?”
Quentin Hardy, The Times’s deputy technology editor, considers the question.
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“Cloud” data is stored on hard drives (much the way data is usually stored). And yes, it’s probably more secure than conventionally stored data.
What makes cloud storage different? Instead of being stored directly on your own personal device (the hard drive on your laptop, for example, or your phone), cloud-based data is stored elsewhere — on servers owned by big companies, usually — and is made accessible to you via the internet.
When people think of cloud computing, they often think of internet-connected public clouds run by the likes of Amazon, Microsoft and Google. (If you use Gmail, Dropbox or Microsoft’s Office 365, you are using a cloud service.) There are also consumer clouds that, for example, hold your pictures and social media posts (think of Facebook or Twitter), or store your music and email (think of Apple or Google).
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