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Welcome to podcast #73! This week we’re looking into cloud storage for business – what is the cloud? How can you use it? We’ve had a few questions about it lately so let’s take a look!
What did Andrew and Heather learn this week?
Andrew found out about the new Amazon Fire phone. This phone has an app inside (Firefly) so that you can use the microphone or camera to identify products, songs and more. Guess what it will pull up? Of course a page on Amazon to buy the product…
Heather has been working on video editing for clients this week. She has been using a great tool called iSkysoft – this allows you to convert and format videos as needed. For example, you can format so that they are able to be played on mobile. It comes with a download button that automatically shows on YouTube. This means you can automatically download and mp4 off YouTube of any video…
Cloud Storage for Business …
What is the cloud?
Quite simply, a place to store your files so that you can access them from anywhere and on any device. It means you don’t need a massive amount of hardware storage for your various files.
Why do you need it?
These days we take so many photos and videos and create so many other different types of files, that without cloud storage you will need devices with a vast amount of memory to store on hard drive. The cloud solves that problem for you – it’s also a great way to ensure you don’t lose your files.
For business, cloud storage is a great way of sharing files so that everyone accesses the latest version of the file and there is no need for emailing backwards and forwards.
What services are there?
- Dropbox – upload anything to your Dropbox account and have the option to share files with people you decide. There is also the ability to have a public folder so that you can easily share without giving permissions. You can also download a local version if you want to work offline. Dropbox varies in price, from a free account to different payment levels depending on how much space you need.
- Google Drive – Again, great for version control when sharing documents and you can store privately, or give permissions to others to view/edit.
- Microsoft 365 – One thing that’s great about this is if you need to create a Powerpoint presentation, you don’t need to have Powerpoint downloaded on your computer to run the presentation as it uses the Microsoft 365 capabilities.
- Amazon S3 – create folders called ‘buckets’. We use it to store our podcasts for example – it means that our website is not slowed down by having large media files. You only get charged for the number of times people actually download your file too!
- iCloud – Available from any Apple device
Question: We’ve heard a rumour that IOS8 may include Whispersync-style technology so you can do things such as transfer a call from your phone over to your computer – is this correct?
Can you comment on Andrew’s question with regard to IOS8? Any other thoughts? Let us know!
