Last year, one of the most repeated words was “cloud” and if you still don’t know what that even means, you aren’t alone. We’ve mostly heard of the cloud surrounding photo leaks, but it’s actually a rather useful tool for businesses as well, who have their information stored on a server outside of their physical business. If you’re a little behind on the times and still aren’t sure exactly what the cloud is, here are a few answers to the most common questions to get you back on track.

What is the cloud, exactly?
The cloud is named so — and hard to understand — because it’s not a touchable, tangible thing. The cloud is the way that information is stored over a network of cloud servers. What’s a server? It’s just a network computer that holds shared resources that are used by computers on the network. When it comes down to it, cloud computing is just storing information on the internet instead of a physical device.

Is it secure?
One of the reasons that the word “cloud” is so well-known these days — and not in the puffy and white kind of way — is because of photo leaks, but that doesn’t mean the cloud isn’t a good place to store information. Some cloud hosting services offer to encrypt data for paying clients to ensure that their data is secure. Otherwise, it might just be best not to store personal or sensitive data on it.

Why do people use it?
Businesses often use cloud hosting servers for a number of reasons. Rather than having to have and maintain a dedicated server in-house, using the cloud is most often financially motivated. Since not having a server on the premises saves on utilities, maintenance, staffing, and cloud servers are often better performing and more efficient, sometimes the cloud is just the right financial choice for small businesses.

Do you have any other questions about the cloud, cloud hosting servers, or their security? Feel free to ask us in the comments section below.