Many of us have seen the option of ‘cloud storage’ on our smart phones, but we hardly ever use it or explore it. Till our mobiles take care of storing our photos, videos, apps and other things in its RAM, internal storage as well as external memory cards, we don’t bother understanding more about Mobile Cloud Storage. Investing in phones with huge inbuilt memories has become the ‘it’ thing now. However, only a tech-savvy few understand that it is more practical to use the cloud storage option than spending extra money on inbuilt storage. What does it mean to opt for ‘cloud storage’ on your phone and why is it a more beneficial option? Let’s read on to know more… Mobile cloud storage Mobile cloud storage is basically a form of cloud storage that can be used to store your mobile device data. This data once stored on the mobile cloud can be accessed anywhere and at any time on your phone in an area with internet connectivity. Mobile cloud storage platform also facilitates syncing and sharing the data with other multiple devices like other phones, tablets, PCs and laptops. This type of storage is also many a times called as pocket cloud storage, personal cloud storage or storage on the go.

With the advent in mobile technology, it has become imperative that our smart phones today perform more complex functions. Due to limited storage, energy and computational power, phones have to utilize the cloud storage services to complete tasks efficiently. In simple terms, mobile cloud storage means that files can be saved on cloud from the phone. It also involves offloading service which means that tasks, especially those which are computational intensive, can be moved to cloud as well to save battery and CPU usage.

Service providers

Many mobile cloud storage providers exist in the market like Apple with iCloud, Google Drive and Amazon with Dropbox; they all provide limited free cloud storage to users. For more storage space, providers offer paid services that are usually distributed in monthly subscription offers depending on the desired storage. Mobile device manufacturers too have inbuilt cloud storage option that users can utilize for their advantage. Apple devices come with already configured Apple mobile cloud storage called the iCloud. For several android phones, Google Drive has become a preloaded option where users can also back up their device data.

Savior in disguise

You take out your phone to click a random photograph and suddenly, a message pops up after clicking that your device storage is full! This could be life-shattering technical hurdle for many mobile-addict users today. What do you do in this case? Delete a few files that were less important but not completely unimportant or do you wedge for other options like download the photos to your PC, but by that time that spontaneous moment when you could have captured the photo has gone. Now, ponder about the cloud storage option on your phone. It could really be a savior! Most technical experts recommend that all those things that hog your mobile space like videos and photos majorly, should be offloaded to a cloud at the earliest possible occasion. If you do this with a free service most of your photos and videos are going to be triflingly resized; you will have to pay up if you want to store them in full resolution. However, there are several cloud storage apps and varied rate structures to choose from in case you want them in the original quality at low cost.

The major benefits of using the mobile cloud storage platform include:

Limitless storage: Your phone will have only a few MBs and GBs of storage for videos, photos, files, applications and data, but a cloud platform has virtually limitless storage which can go up to terabytes.

On the go: All this stored data can be accessed on any device at anytime and anywhere. The only requirement is internet connectivity in the form of Wi-Fi or cellular signal.

Security: No matter what is said about cloud storage security, the real deal is that mobile cloud storage is much more secure than your phone storage. Remember your phone can get lost, damaged or stolen, but your mobile cloud account will remain in the virtual space and accessible forever.

Mobile cloud computing

However, the synergetic relationship with mobile and cloud goes beyond just storage. While your smart phone is a mechanical marvel and can do several local tasks on its own just fine, it still has several computing limitations. This is where mobile cloud computing comes in to help you with all the ‘heavy lifting’. Dubbed by the International Data Corporation (IDC) as the ‘Third Platform’ mobile cloud computing essentially means cloud computing where at least a few of the connected devices are mobile. It brings together mobile computing, cloud computing and wireless networks in order to increase capabilities of mobile devices using offloading techniques. A mobile cloud allows for improved access to and management of data as well as better scalability and dependability. It lets business applications be accessed from anywhere and at any time.

Mobile cloud computing is emerging as one of the most important branches of cloud computing today. It completely eliminates the limitations of software and hardware upgradations in mobile phones that occur due to its size. It helps resource intensive tasks to be performed on the cloud and results be sent to the mobile phone. Meanwhile, mobile cloud computing extends all benefits of cloud computing like zero downtime, low cost, hardware-less solution, flexibility, scalability, and others.

With all these advantages, techies are still figuring out how to eliminate the biggest disadvantage of mobile cloud – data security. Smart phone users very often give sensitive details through the network. If not protected with encryptions, passwords or other techniques, it can lead to a disaster in case of a security breach.

To summarize, mobile cloud storage has surfaced as a new paradigm and extension of cloud storage and is expected to grow quickly in the coming time.