Effective ways to use Cloud for online storage


How to solve the limited storage problem on our smartphone or tablet or laptop? Can cloud storage be used for large storage? Is it possible to access my computer hard drive from anywhere? People who wonder about such queries can read below article. Here, I have listed the advantages of using cloud for maximising our online storage space and also discussed about automation of tasks in Dropbox account.

When is cloud storage required?


The internet world keeps on evolving at great speed every year. The technology growth has ensured that new devices get launched week after week, higher speed connections are achieved in most countries, different wireless network connections are established, etc. One of the major factors behind selection of electronic gadgets like smartphones, laptops, tablets, desktop PC, etc. used to be their storage capacity. But, with growing needs even several Gigabytes of storage space seems insufficient these days. In such a scenario, cloud storage has proved to be a boon. It works on the basic principle that digital storage space should not be restricted to only our local electronic devices. It supports the idea of keeping multimedia and data stored at one location and accessing them from any location. The only requirement for proper usage of cloud storage is good internet connection. And in today's age, good internet connection speeds are found almost everywhere.

Advantages of using cloud storage
  1. If your home computer or laptop has less storage space and you need to access some files and folders while travelling or while at work, then, you can access the required data using your office laptop or any portable device like tablet. This will save a user from the trouble of carrying his home laptop while travelling.

  2. Many offices have strict guidelines and policies regarding the installation of softwares on office laptops or computers. Employees of such offices can access useful software and data from home without the need of installing them on office devices.

  3. A smartphone should be sleek and portable. It is not required for it to have huge storage space which may impact it's performance. Smartphones can instead use our home computer or laptop hard drive for storing big files and data.

  4. Cloud storage options like Dropbox can be used for streaming music, videos, photos, etc. from any location.

Optimum ways of using Cloud storage


  • Utilising desktop PC as personal cloud

  • Generally, every internet user has a private desktop PC which he / she values a lot. All personal data is generally stored on this PC. This PC can be used optimally as a personal cloud storage space. For this purpose, one will have to set up remote access to the home PC. You can install a small server application for Windows OS or Mac OS from websites like logmein for free. After installation, the server will be running fine and user simply needs to complete the free registration by creating an online account. This free account can be used to access and control your home PC from any location via a web browser. You can easily access any files, data, etc. from your home computer while you are out using your smartphone or tablet. This will make your life much easier as you will have access to soft copies
    of all your important documents.

    Alternatively, you can buy a new network-connected hard drive like Seagate Central Shared Storage that connects with your home internet modem or wireless router. After the network-connected hard drive (that has varied storage capacities) is set up correctly, one can access the data from it using a browser.

  • Accessing remote data without a web browser

  • In the previous method of using your home computer as personal cloud, a web browser was used to access files and data stored remotely on your home PC. To avoid using a browser from a smartphone, one can opt for free apps to access the remote content. In this method also, a server software will have to be installed on your home PC. A good example of such a free app is Tonido which supports Android, iOS and Windows OS. One can download the server software from website www.tonido.com and link your app to home PC using customized server address. This will enable you to access all files, music, photos, videos, etc. stored on your home computer at your fingertips using the Tonido app in your smartphone. Another such useful app is Polkast. The big advantage of such smartphone apps is that one can not only access remote content of your home computer, but, at the same time, one can even transfer photos or videos taken from your phone to the home computer for instant backup.

  • Direct streaming of videos and music from home computer

  • Most of us have a habit of listening to music on the go or watch movies / TV serials during long distance travel. It is not feasible to have all our music files or video files stored in our smartphone that we are bound to carry wherever we go. Also, the apps that offer free audio and video streaming are good, but, it is difficult to get uninterrupted and seamless streaming of music or videos on our mobile phones using any internet connection. There may be delays experienced or unnecessary stoppages which can irritate the user. So, the best method to have seamless audio and video streaming will be to access your music and video files from home computer. One can use the free app called "Subsonic" (suitable for Android, iOS, Blackberry and Windows) on smartphones and can download the related desktop software from the website www.subsonic.org. Once you create an account, you can select the folders that will be shared for streaming and then assign a customized name of a web server that the Subsonic app on your smartphone will get connected to. Once your smartphone app is connected properly, all selected music and video files will be available for access from any location with good internet connection.

  • Optimal usage of Dropbox facility

  • Dropbox is one of the most popular cloud storage facility. One can use it for storing large files and also enhance it for better usage. Music files stored in Dropbox can be streamed using DropTunes. After signing into the Dropbox account, one can access all files through a browser and play the music files directly. In other words, DropTunes help to play music directly from your Dropbox folder i.e. it provides simple cloud-streaming music. Dropbox supports automation of certain tasks like file conversion and file transfer using Dropbox Automator. For this purpose, one needs to go to dropboxautomator available at website www.wappwolf.com and give necessary permissions to your folders stored in Dropbox account. Once permissions are given, user can create an action for particular tasks like conversion to PDF or conversion to any other file format. As soon as any file is placed in such a folder for which permissions are given and a customized action is created, the Dropbox Automator will perform the task (for example: converting file into PDF or other file format) on that file and store it there itself. A variety of different actions can be created for automation of tasks in Dropbox account.


Read Review of JustCloud - free cloud storage


Comments

Author: Sagar19 Jan 2014 Member Level: Silver   Points : 3

Hello! I read your article, I completely agree with you that cloud storage is very useful for us. We can store our GB's of data without any headache. If we have a good data plan then we can use cloud storage as a pen drive also.
I got confused in 2nd point of "Advantages of using cloud storage". You wrote that we can use software from home without installing them. How could it be possible? We can store any software setup file. But, we can't use them using cloud storage. Can you define this?



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