![]() Before long, concerns arose about entrusting your only copy of key data to these offsite services. The term "cloud" evolved from referring to the Internet's massive wide area network (WAN) to refer more specifically to the storage repositories on the Internet-such as Dropbox, Google Drive, and Microsoft's OneDrive-where many of us save or back up our data these days. Western Digital (WD) offers multiple versions of its My Cloud NAS product, networking veteran ZyXel offers a Personal Cloud line of NAS drives, and Seagate sub-brand LaCie makes the CloudBox. After all, Seagate is not the only drive manufacturer to use this "cloud" conceit in naming its personal storage devices. ![]() ![]() In short: The term keeps morphing and evolving. Since 1982, PCMag has tested and rated thousands of products to help you make better buying decisions. ( Read our editorial mission (Opens in a new window) & see how we test everything we review (Opens in a new window).) So how, then, did we get from that vast abstraction to everyday network attached storage (NAS) appliances being called "clouds," like the $169.99-MSRP Seagate Personal Cloud 3TB we're reviewing here today? Or, more simply: How did a humble data-storage device, sitting beside you on your desk, get associated with a term of such immense reach? The cloud was a mysterious entity out there where intricate and wondrous things took place. The term was used by IT people to symbolize the too-complicated-to-explain conglomeration of servers, routers, switches, and data lines. Take, for example, the term "cloud," which emerged in the 1990s as an abstraction for the complicated inner workings of the telephone company, and later to represent the massive infrastructure of the Internet. If you've been in the information technology (IT) business as long as we have, we're sure that you marvel at the evolution of its terminology the same way we do. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |