Most of us are used to installing applications on a computer or a smartphone to enjoy their features. These can enhance creativity, productivity, or entertainment. The rise of cloud computing applications have been challenging the status quo for quite a while and they are gaining more traction each year. Instead of having to install software locally, everything is located far away in networks that criss-cross all over the world — aka the cloud. You just have to sign up and create your own account so that you can get access. This provides the following advantages:
Platform Independence
The cloud-based applications are accessible through web browsers. Any device that can read web pages can make use of these. It doesn’t matter what the operating system is because you can get up and go with any OS. It doesn’t matter what sort of hardware you’re using from smartphone to tablet to laptop to desktop. The screen size and orientation might differ but the apps will usually adjust to their environment.
Low System Requirements
Since most of the computing is done at the back-end, there are lower system requirements for the devices that are using these. They simply need to display the results because the heavy lifting is done by the server’s processors. This can potentially make demanding apps related to gaming, video editing, and 3D rendering more accessible to the masses in the future.
Suitable for Collaborations
Cloud computing applications are accessible by multiple people from different locations at the same time. They can edit documents together while having a discussion on the side. This is perfect for work at home setups involving teams. They can still work together even if they are apart. All of the changes are recorded so there is still accountability.
Robust Data Management
Users can be confident about saving their files on the cloud because these are unlikely to get deleted in the future. There are copies of these throughout the network in different servers such that they can be accessible even if there are power interruptions or equipment failures in one part of the system. If files are in a computer, then all is lost if the unit is stolen.
Continuous Upgrades
There is no need to upgrade the cloud apps themselves because this will be done by the engineers in the background from their systems. These are tested before deployment so that bugs can be found and squashed before massive rollouts. You will always get the latest stable version with every login.
