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“Members Helping Members”



            October 2020                                                      Volume 40, Issue 07





                 Cloud Storage











                                               What it means



         This month I’ll be taking a look at cloud storage and
         what that means. The mystery of what is the ‘Cloud’
         is actually very simple. On the internet, each acces-
         sible device has an IP address assigned by the In-
         ternet Service Provider (ISP) that connects that de-
         vice to the internet. This internet address is then
         shared among the many servers worldwide that link
         all internet paths together. This is how you can ac-
         cess a given PC or Server that provides services
         such as a web site.

         The SCPCUG web site, for example, is actually on
         some PC that no-one in the club has ever seen,
         likely based in the company facilities, of the compa-  associated with my personal Microsoft account,
                                                                which is required to use OneDrive services. That
         ny that we pay to ‘host’ our web site. So, when you    way my data is accessible to only my Microsoft ac-
         use a browser to access www.scpcug. com, your          count, from whatever app is requesting it. I have a
         ISP (Spectrum or AT&T, most likely in our county),
         refers to the Domain Name Servers                      OneDrive app on my iPhone as well as on all other
                                                                Windows 10 PCs. As long as I log into that app with
         (DNS) to locate the actual IP address to go to, to     the correct credentials of my
         request the web pages for the SCPCUG.
                                                                Microsoft account, I can access the files stored in my
         Now when it comes to cloud storage, the process is     account.
         quite similar. The app that you use to perform cloud
         backups or copies of your files, like DropBox, Apple   Each remote PC is, in essence, just like your PC,
         iCloud, Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive, etc., con-   except it has much more data storage available to it.
         nects to the target PC for that service across the     Enough data storage to create a directory or folder
         internet and then proceeds to do whatever you have     for each user that has an account for that service. In
         instructed the app to do. For example, I use           reality, it is not one PC but rather a cluster of PCs or
         OneDrive to backup all of my personal files on my      servers that appear as one logical server to provide
         home PC. The app is                                                                         (Continued on page 4)

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