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CHAPTER 6
Data Storage in the Cloud

Advantages of cloud solutions include scalability, robustness, pay-for-use pricing models, and accessibility from any device at any time. One of the early great successes of the cloud was cloud-based storage, to which users posted photos and videos from their phones, which they could later access from those phones as well their personal computers. Today, most users have gotten beyond the initial fears of putting data in the cloud and use cloud-based storage for a wide range of files and documents. This chapter examines cloud-based storage. As you will learn, most cloud-service providers offer such storage. To the user, most cloud-based storage solutions appear as a standard disk drive on their systems that they can use like any drive. In addition, most cloud-storage providers furnish browser-based access that allows the user to access his or her files from anywhere using any device. Further, many cloud-storage providers offer a mobile app that allows a user to access their files using their phone.