Mobile Cloud Computing

Have you ever been told that you have your head in the clouds?  Well, maybe that phrase isn’t too far off.  You can easily put a picture of your head in the clouds at least.  Mobile cloud computing is adding a whole new dimension to our use of mobile devices.  As we use our phones as cameras more and more, we quickly run out of room to store all the pictures, or inevitably you want to show someone a picture that is not on the device you happen to have in your hand.  Mobile cloud computing solves these and many other issues around the many mobile devices we have. 

When purchasing a new mobile phone with either an Android or Apple operating system, you will be setup automatically for a free backup service.  This service will back up your phone whenever it is connected to a power source and wifi.  This is one feature of the mobile cloud computing world.  There is more.  You can also activate Google Drive for your Android phone or iCloud for the iPhone.  This will allow you to easily share files.

For the Android devices, download the Google Drive app.  With this app you can store your photos and files from your devices to Google Drive then access them with any of your devices.  You can also install the desktop version for Windows or Mac and share these files with your computer.

For Apple devices/computers activate iCloud, setting up access to store and share files with all of our Apple products.   If you own a Windows computer you can download the iCloud Control Panel (for Windows 7 or 8) and share in this service. 

** What is cloud computing?  It is simply the use of computers hosted on the Internet to store, manage and process data, rather than a local or personal computer being used for that purpose.

Charlotte Janes, Head of Systems and Administration