January 12, 2012
By Tom Manners

The concept of cloud computing is a foggy one. What does it mean and how can it benefit mobile users?

The term ‘cloud computing’ is thrown around pretty loosely these days. So much so in fact, that many people are feeling a little muddled and confused with regards to what it actually means.

In a nutshell, the concept of cloud computing revolves around the storing of information at a remote location to be accessed anywhere, anytime via an internet connection.

Put more simply, we are moving away from saving our data on personal hard drives on a single device towards sending that information to a safe location and accessing it simultaneously on many platforms.

There are a number of applications currently available which, more simply explain the concept behind cloud computing. Dropbox, a web based file hosting service which is freely available to anyone, is the best known of these. Dropbox allows us to upload pictures, documents, videos and music to a centralised ‘box’ online and access it using a computer folder, mobile phone and even a web browser.

Fortunately for mobile users, Nokia has been working with Microsoft to deliver a cloud application which makes storing and accessing information on smartphones even easier.

Microsoft SkyDrive is another such application, and comes with a large number of unique benefits. This app allows users to save their documents, images, videos, music to a cloud based vault which can be used as a private storage facility or a public sharing platform.

SkyDrive is compatible with Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, which means that users will be able to access all of their most important business related documents and tools via their handsets. Dedicated applications for Skydrive exist for Windows Phone, iPad and iPhone, and your files will also be easily accessible from any PC.

To use SkyDrive, users just need to set up a Windows Live account. Chances are that if you’ve used MSN, you already have one of these.

SkyDrive is one of the many innovative applications which will be available on the Nokia Lumia range – expected to be released in South Africa in early 2012.