Internet in the form of a cloud. What benefits does using the cloud provide to the average user? Which service is better

Hello, dear readers of the blog site. Today we will talk about another cloud service, this time from . First, some lyrics. I still have two hard drives in my computer that are twelve to fifteen years old, maybe more. “So what, it happens,” you say. Yes, but...

Over the past few years, I have thrown into the trash about six or seven hard drives that were between two and four years old, but they all failed one by one. Components now (and railways in particular) are extremely unreliable (apparently this is a conspiracy to sell more and more new volumes, because quality does not depend on the manufacturer). Therefore, all important and not so important information has to be backed up. .

Now I'm on Dropbox, but the free gigabytes I received for installing their application on my S3 mobile phone are coming to an end. Due to the devaluation of the ruble, the paid package has almost doubled in price. Therefore, now I am at a crossroads - either strangle the toad, or look for an alternative free cloud.

Option clouds from Mail.ru I was attracted by the large size of the storage area for a free service - 25 GB (on my old Mail.ru account I even got a hundred for undivided use) and its fairly large popularity in RuNet. However, let's take a closer look at the product...

Opportunities of [email protected] in comparison with competitors

Previously, the corporation had a project called Files Mail.ru and provided users with the ability to exchange files. Files had a number of restrictions on the size of transferred objects and much more, but since 2014 this project has been considered closed and everyone is strongly advised to move to the cloud, where all its main functionality has been transferred:

Therefore, today it makes sense to talk exclusively about [email protected]. To begin with, let me remind you that a little earlier I described several popular cloud services in RuNet, each of which is quite competitive (follow the links provided you will find their detailed description):

- a wonderful service (the founder of other clouds), which stores not only files, but also the history of their changes (this option seriously helped me out once). True, they give only about two gigs for free, although you can get sophisticated in various ways, expanding them to sixteen. On a paid tariff they give you a terabyte, but in exchange they ask for a hundred evergreen pieces of paper per year (some kind of chaos).
— on a free account there is a limit of 10-20 Gigabits, which again will have to be obtained in various unnatural ways. I mainly use it to transfer some files (folders) by sharing, or to upload some things for downloading from the site (Dropbox in this regard is picky about the amount of traffic generated during downloading).
— as in Dropbox, the history of document changes can be saved in the cloud, and a huge number of file types can be viewed without downloading them to your computer. By default, it offers fifteen gigs for free (although they will be shared with Google photos). There you will also find an online office (what used to be Google Docs) if you want to create and edit documents online.
- the brainchild of Microsoft. Mere mortals are provided with seven gigs of joy, and for owners of licensed eights - twenty-five. Among the features, we can note a complete analogy of the online office, which is called Office Web Apps, as well as the ability to gain remote access from the Internet to the computer where you have the cloud application installed.

Kindly skipping ahead and presenting the competitors, I think it’s time to review the capabilities of the web interface of this cloud, its program for installation on a computer and the Mail.Ru Cloud mobile application. The set is generally standard, and the capabilities of this service are somewhat similar to those already described by direct competitors.

However, a year ago there was a promotion in Mile where many were able to get one terabyte of free space in the cloud simply for installing a mobile client and connecting it to their account. Therefore, in RuNet this service is very actively used, including for sharing something useful in narrow circles. In general, I like the corporation’s approach to business, and I noted this when I wrote about them. It’s not for nothing that, in total, all their resources occupy first place in terms of traffic on the RuNet.

Main characteristics of the Mailrush Cloud

So what:

As you can see, the history of file changes is not kept here, which means you will not be able to restore the appearance of the file as it was a week ago. On the one hand, this is a minus, but on the other hand, in two years I have used this opportunity in Dropbox only once.

Online version of the file storage [email protected]

Cloud web interface quite simple and concise. There is nothing superfluous or distracting. Personally, I like it more than the competitors’ options (the designers and usability engineers did a great job).

There are two tabs at the top: “Cloud” and “Sharing”. The first tab opens by default, and you will find a description of the second in the video above (there you can share one of the folders with your friends or colleagues and allow each of them to either only view the contents, or give them the ability to edit it). Let's go over interface of the “Cloud” tab:

Mail.Ru Cloud - programs for working with disk

Actually, let’s now take a look at working with the desktop and mobile versions of Mail.Ru Cloud. Let's start with the computer. You can download the program for Windows using the link provided. The installation wizard is completely “typical”. After installing the program [email protected] you will be asked to provide your username and password for your mail account:

If you entered everything correctly, then in the next step you will be offered to change your place of residence if you wish. folders [email protected] , which will subsequently be synchronized with the cloud. Please note that its size will be equal to the size of the files stored on the virtual cloud disk, and can reach 25 Gigabytes (and in my case, up to a hundred).

By default, this folder is proposed to be created on the “C” drive, which is not acceptable for me personally, because I periodically create an image of it with Acronis and the extra gigabytes are not a problem for me there at all.

Traditionally, after installing a program, its icon will appear in the tray; by clicking on it with the left mouse button you will be taken to this very common folder, which will be synchronized with the cloud. Well, the right-click menu will allow you to perform a number of important and not so important actions.

For example, if you work with the same cloud from Mail from several computers (you are allowed to connect up to five of them), then different users will probably have their own folders that there is no point in synchronizing for everyone else. For this setting, use the menu item "Select folders". In the window that opens, simply uncheck those folders whose contents you do not need to synchronize on this computer. If anything happens, you can play everything back simply by returning the checkboxes to their place.

you no longer need to open the cloud.mail.ru service in your browser, but simply copy it to a folder [email protected] the necessary objects and they will immediately begin synchronizing with the virtual cloud disk. By the way, in the context menu of all your files and folders after installing the program, additional items will appear to help in this difficult task:

Well, it’s like a desktop program and I don’t know what else can be said. Quite simple, visual and understandable. Let's see if things are going well with the application for mobile devices.

Mobile application Cloud Mail.Ru

I installed it on the iPad, so I’ll talk about it. It is installed from (search either by Cloud Mail.Ru or by Mail.ru cloud). Naturally, you will again have to enter your username and password for your account.

After that, you will be asked if you want to automatically upload photos and videos from this gadget to the mailrush cloud.

If you agree, a folder will be automatically created in the root of your virtual disk "Camera Uploads", where all media files will begin to be copied immediately. Actually, this is exactly how I uploaded the screenshots given here to the computer. The thing is convenient.

The mobile application interface is again quite simple and well thought out. At the top right you will find a button for customizing the appearance of the display of files in the window (again, you will be asked to select the notorious tile or list). There, by the way, it will be possible to configure sorting (alphabetically, by date, and in reverse order).

The button with a plus sign located next to it will allow you to add a new folder, as well as perform a couple more actions:

The left button on the top toolbar opens a hidden menu that allows you to perform a number of actions.

I forgot to mention that the mobile application comes naturally, because the first one usually has a bit of a problem with memory. However, some files can be stored on the gadget. The easiest way to do this is to click on the icon with an up arrow when viewing a file, but there is a universal way. In order to mock any file, just click on the letter “i” in the circle and in the window that has already opened, select the action you need (saving, sharing, moving, renaming, etc.).

There you can also configure shared access to the folder:

When viewing files in list mode, you can simply move the line with the object description to the left and gain access to the same settings:

Naturally, files of many formats can be viewed directly in the application window (photos, videos, text documents, etc.). Well, that's all, I guess.

I was left with a very good impression of the usability of the service and applications under the general name [email protected]. If in the near future they also add the ability to collaborate with files, and also (dreams) add the ability to access the history of file changes, then I will probably move to this file storage from Dropbox (100 GB received from mailrush will completely satisfy me in size) . However, I would appreciate hearing your feedback. Maybe talk me out of it.

Good luck to you! See you soon on the pages of the blog site

You can watch more videos by going to

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What is cloud storage?

Cloud file storage is a special remote server.

Many Internet resources allow users to store personal information on their server.

This service is provided both for a fee and free of charge. Of course, services with paid services provide the most opportunities, but free ones can also be very comfortable.

Cloud storage is a place where you can store your data, which you can access anywhere and at any time. Naturally, provided that the Internet is available in this place.

The “cloud” can be used after installing special programs or directly from . Nowadays, applications for accessing files on a server can be installed not only on a computer, but also on a tablet or smartphone.

Advantages and Disadvantages

Everything is clear about what cloud storage means, but what are its advantages? The main advantages of this method of data storage are:

Easy access to any files and documents;
In the event of a complete crash of the operating system, the content uploaded to the cloud will remain safe and sound;
All data can be stored forever;
Most Internet services provide these services completely free of charge.

Of course, in addition to the advantages, such a storage system also has certain disadvantages.

Some services are not able to provide encryption of information during transmission. This affects the security of sending your data.

The speed of operations depends on your Internet provider or mobile operator that provides Internet communication services.

But despite all this, one cannot but agree that the advantages of cloud storage are much greater than the disadvantages.

Google Drive

Google Drive cloud storage gives the user as much as 15 GB of space. If you need more, you can additionally purchase up to 30 TB.

Those who have repeatedly used services from Google, for example, google doc, will feel comfortable here. In addition, the Google Drive application is available not only for Windows OS, but also for Mac OS, Android, iOS.

Mega

Mega is a young but very promising cloud file hosting service created by Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom.

The advantage of this service over similar ones is complete confidentiality and data protection. Important features of the service:

encryption of all data in the browser using the AES algorithm;
the ability to exchange encrypted files between users;
keys to files are not published, but are transferred only in Friend-to-Friend mode.

For data storage, Mega provides you with up to 50 Gigabytes for free. Also, if necessary, you can additionally purchase:

500 GB for $10 per month,
2 TB for $19 per month,
4 TB ($30 per month).

In terms of disk space, Mega is the most profitable among cloud services.

But due to certain shortcomings, this service still loses, for example, in terms of synchronization with other devices.

Cloud mail.ru

A promising “cloud” from Russian developers from Mail.Ru Group. Here you can store any information, share it with other users and synchronize it across all devices.

The cloud can be used both through the web interface and through mobile applications for iOS and Android. In applications for mobile devices, the function of auto-uploading photos from an iPad or iPhone is available. By activating this function, you will automatically transfer photos created using the device to the Cloud.

You are immediately given up to 25 GB of free disk space.

Yandex.Disk

An excellent free service from good old Yandex, which allows you to save your files and share them with other users on the World Wide Web.

From the very beginning, Yandex.Disk gives the user 10 GB, which is much less than in other services. Additionally you can buy:

10 GB for 30 rub. per month
100 GB for 150 rubles per month,
1 TB for 900 rubles per month.

Also, as a bonus, you can additionally be given:

50 GB for promotions with partners
512 megabytes for each referred friend (in this way you can increase the volume to a maximum of 10 Gigabytes).

It is important that Yandex.Disk can be integrated into Microsoft Office 2013, that is, you can immediately save documents to the “cloud” of this service.

There is also a business version of Yandex.Disk, which differs from the standard one in the presence of an API and certain functions to improve security.

Dropbox

This cloud file storage allows users to store their own data and share it with each other with a password. That is, in order for your friends to see the files that you prepared for them, you will have to tell them the password for the document.

The main account gives you 2 Giga for free. Additionally, you can purchase 1 terabyte for 10 euros per month. By signing up for a “Business” account (12 euros per month) you can get as much space as you need.

Dropbox works great on both PC and mobile devices. Unlike other similar products, this application does not copy edited files to the server, but transfers only the modified, pre-compressed part. This makes Dropbox much faster than its competitors.

What is cloud storage?

Cloud storage is a space allocated to you on numerous servers of the service provider; the file storage system is decentralized - two of your files can be on completely different servers! We upload the file using the application to the server and it goes to the “cloud”. Depending on your wishes and needs, the files can be either publicly or only privately accessible: to selected people. Files from the cloud can only be accessed via the Internet, making files accessible to you anywhere and from any device.

Pros and benefits of cloud storage

Files are available EVERYWHERE there is internet: you can access from your phone or PC
Save space or expand memory: Photos and videos can be stored in the cloud to save space
High file transfer speed thanks to a wide geographical network of servers and CDN
Storage reliability: even if one server fails, there are copies of the data on other servers
Excellent opportunities for businesses and remote employees: one file is available for editing by everyone with access!

There is only one minus - you need internet:)

How to start using Cloud Storage and which one to choose

In order to start using cloud storage, you need to download the client program and install it. If you don't know what to choose, read our "".
To upload a file or photo to the cloud, follow the prompts built into the application, otherwise look for the “+” icon or the inscription “Upload”
Now all you have to do is set up access from outside to your files: it will be only you, or the owners of the direct link that you create will have access

To transfer your file or folder from the cloud to another user, you need to give him a link: to find it, click on the desired file or folder, find the link and send it to whoever needs to give access to the file in your cloud.

A sociological survey conducted in the United States showed that 54% of respondents firmly believe that they have never used cloud technologies. In fact, the situation is completely different - more than 95% of Internet users use cloud technologies without even knowing it. You use them when you watch online videos, play online games, download music through iTunes, check your Gmail, or access Facebook.

This is how, before our eyes, and completely unnoticed by us, a revolution took place in the field of computer technology.
We use increasingly powerful and resource-intensive programs that require increasingly powerful hardware to operate. We are forced to operate with ever larger volumes of data, and this data needs to be stored somewhere. But if you think about it, we don’t use this super-powerful program very often, and without it we could have bought a simpler computer (like doing it ourselves). And we also don’t need terabytes of data every day.

This is approximately the same logic (only, of course, at a higher level) that Eric Schmidt, who was then the head of the company, was guided by in 2006, proposing a new model of computer technology. Actually, he did not propose anything fundamentally new; distributed computing had been widely used before, but he coined the term “cloud” and after his speech, the model he proposed began to develop rapidly.

Modern data centers contain colossal computing power and huge amounts of disk space. Modern software and communication channels allow servers located on different continents to work as a single unit. You just need to create a convenient access system, and then the entire array of this power can be provided to those who need it. Virtualization tools allow you to divide computing power into individual consumers in any proportion.

And such an access system was developed. Now the user can access remote computing resources through a web service.
Several areas of cloud technologies are already operating and rapidly developing in the corporate sector.

Types of cloud technologies

The first, lowest level is the provision of the right to use software (SaaS) as a service. The consumer does not need to buy expensive software and a powerful workstation on which he can work. There is no need to employ specialists who will install, configure and maintain all this equipment. He simply rents the right to use the software and pays only for the time he used it. Moreover, it can work on any device with Internet access, be it a tablet or even a smartphone. After all, all calculations are performed on the cloud side of the provider, and only the results are delivered to the user’s device.

The next level is the provision of a platform as a service. In this case, the consumer receives at his disposal operating systems, database management systems, or development and debugging tools on which he can develop and deploy his projects.

And finally, at the highest level, the entire infrastructure of a large corporate computer network is provided to the consumer in a cloud version.
Well, what do we, ordinary users, get from cloud technologies? We have already mentioned that we often use services deployed in the clouds without knowing it. In addition, we have dozens of different cloud storages at our disposal. They all offer services that are approximately the same in functionality.

Typically, the user is asked to download and install a small program and create a folder to store the files that you want to place in the cloud storage. You need to configure settings for synchronizing files and folders located on your local computer (as) and in the cloud. Everything that will be stored in the cloud will be available to you from any device via the web interface. You can open free access to a folder or file to anyone by sending them the appropriate link.

Let's look at some of the most popular storages

Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 were already created with an eye to using cloud technologies, and the same can be said about Apple's operating systems. 90% of Microsoft's research budget is used to develop this particular area. This means that the pace of development of cloud technologies will only increase.

What is cloud storage?

Pros and benefits of cloud storage

Files are available EVERYWHERE there is internet: you can access from your phone or PC
Save space or expand memory: Photos and videos can be stored in the cloud to save space
High file transfer speed thanks to a wide geographical network of servers and CDN
Storage reliability: even if one server fails, there are copies of the data on other servers
Excellent opportunities for businesses and remote employees: one file is available for editing by everyone with access!

There is only one minus - you need internet:)

How to start using Cloud Storage and which one to choose

In order to start using cloud storage, you need to download the client program and install it. If you don't know what to choose, read our "".
To upload a file or photo to the cloud, follow the prompts built into the application, otherwise look for the “+” icon or the inscription “Upload”
Now all you have to do is set up access from outside to your files: it will be only you, or the owners of the direct link that you create will have access