Wondering what cloud is and how it is changing the way people consume computing power?

Ask Mr Akkineni Nagarjuna, the tech savvy actor-entrepreneur and an Apple lover, how he is using cloud. “As an iPhone user, I'm using the cloud services being offered by Apple. Whatever I feel like storing, I simply transfer it to my cloud account. I can carry that across my Apple devices,” he told Business Line .

The cloud is no longer a catchphrase of big enterprises. Individual gadget owners too can get a share. The beauty of cloud is that you will be able to access data from your phone, tablet, laptop and computer when connected to the Net.

Research firm Gartner, however, feels that traditional storage will not disappear overnight but will, however, be augmented by the consumer personal cloud.

“We predict that personal cloud will become widely adopted by 2015,” it said.

Though cloud services offered by firms such as Dropbox are already being used widely, cloud applications over mobile app markets are gaining ground. Dropbox, which offers 2GB of storage for free, allows users to access it from Windows, Mac, Linux, Apple devices and BlackBerry devices.

Amazon too joined the race by offering Cloud Drive, providing 5 GB virtual storage facility to individual users. As it is, it stores all books and other data in the cloud for its Kindle users, providing them a safe haven for their data collection.

While Micrsoft launched Sky Drive, SugarSync and Box offer 5 GB of free storage over the cloud, allowing access from any device, anytime.

Nivio, a start-up firm floated by two young Indian techies that offers entire desktops and whatever applications users might need on demand, too offers 10 GB of free storage on the cloud. Google lets its Gmail users to store documents.

>kurmanath@thehindu.co.in

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