What is cloud computing?
Cloud computing is basically using resources either software or hardware that are in a different location(the cloud). The term cloud comes from when the internet is drawn in a technical diagram it is usually represented by a picture of a cloud. That means that you may login to a remote server to do your computing that means that any computer could essentially become your work computer with a simple login. There is also cloud storage, meaning that your data is stored in another location and then either synced to your device or accessed on demand.
The Windows 8 cloud
Windows 8 has cloud storage built into it using Microsoft’s Skydrive. Skydrive is a cloud storage platform that stores your data on Microsoft’s servers somewhere so you can access it on multiple platforms and wherever you go. Skydrive my be windows 8’s built in cloud storage but there are other options out there such as dropbox and google cloud storage. With skydrive integrated into the windows 8 platform it makes it quite easy to have your essential data on Microsoft’s cloud. Windows 8 will automatically sync any information that you place in the skydrive folder to the Microsoft cloud. So now you can write a word document on your desktop and then save it to your sky drive or other cloud storage service and then on the train you might remember you missed something so you access it on your phone and add what was missing save it back to the cloud and then when you get home that same copy has been changed to how you needed it to be.
Windows 8 also can sync your personal user preferences to the cloud so any Windows 8 device will pull information down from the Microsoft cloud and have the same theme and look as all of your other windows 8 devices. This makes it very easy to go from a Windows 8 desktop to a Windows RT tablet and also to the Windows 8 phone.
Many of the Windows 8 apps also use the cloud in one way or another whether it be by using processing power of a server instead of using your device or they may use the cloud to store the information relevant to you,
If you haven’t seen Windows 8 yet then look at an Introduction to windows 8
