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On-Line Storage Sites: The Future of Information Storage
The world is moving closer and closer to the day when people will have no need
for the hard drives in our computers and everything we create will be stored
on the servers of Internet service providers.
I for one am ready for that day to arrive and look forward to no longer having
to stop working in order to download and install software patches or upgrades.
I welcome the end to threats of malicious software such as Trojans and worms
and other computer malware attaching itself to the software code of programs
I have installed on my computer. And most especially, I long for the smaller
and lighter computers that will come with greater functionality thanks to having
eliminated the need for a bulky and power hungry hard drive.
Already today, anyone can access office suites on-line from any Internet
access point in the world. People can create or edit spreadsheets, presentations,
databases and word documents and save these documents on a virtual server where
they can
be retrieved from anywhere, anyone happens to be. Colleagues can also retrieve
this work and collaborate on projects, thus improving productivity and speeding
up the successful completion of projects.
Storing documents in on-line servers is inherently safer than storing them
on your own PC. The hard drives inside PC’s fail more often then most consumers
realize. And if the user hasn’t backed-up the critical data on their
hard drive, then whatever was on that drive is lost forever. The servers used
by Internet
providers are commonly backed by mirror drives. This means that everything
stored on one hard drive is immediately copied to a second hard drive. If one
drive
fails, the computer users will probably never become aware of it.
By accessing applications on-line, the need to download and install program
patches and upgrades is eliminated. Every user can have confidence in knowing
that the
application they access on-line is the latest version available. And because
the servers hosting the applications are not nearly as vulnerable to virus
attack as a typical PC, users can be confident that the programs they need
will be there
when they need them.
Finally, there is the issue of power. While the search for that elusive long
lasting portable power source continues in the technological world, manufacturers
are trying to prolong available PC battery life by cutting down on the power
requirements of components and automatically conserving power. Besides the
screen on laptops and notebook computers, the hard drive is the most power
hungry device
in a PC. Eliminate the hard drive and you automatically increase batter life
for PC’s.
As for the drawbacks that can come from on-line applications and storage,
there is of course, the security issue. If you are storing data on-line as
opposed
to upon your own internal hard drive, it means you have to transmit that date
to a remote server. Whenever you electronically transmit anything, you invite
the possibility for interception of the transmission. In addition, while remote
servers may be secure, they will, by necessity, be accessible to technicians
and other ISP employees. That can make people who rely on privacy a tad squeamish.
Leaked reports have clearly shown that agencies of the federal government
screen and harvest information from the Internet including email transmissions.
We
can only assume that storage servers used by ISP’s to store user data
will also be compromised by federal snoops.
Like to give Internet productivity suites a try? If so you can start with
Google Docs found at: www.googledocs.com, Zoho Office Suites found at: www.zoho.com
or Think Free found at: www.thinkfree.com. All three are available free of
charge and come packed with enough versatility to satisfy the needs of most
users.
Marketing software directly to users is already fading into the past and
it can only be of benefit for you to study and learn the ways in which
you will
be working
with computers in the future. So give on-line productivity suites a try
and decided on the one that best suits your needs.
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