Similarities between Cloud Storage and Cloud Computing
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Cloud storage and cloud computing both take place on the computer systems owned and controlled by other companies.
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Cloud storage and cloud computing both require a monthly fee to access.
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Cloud storage and cloud computing both require an internet connection to access.
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Cloud storage and cloud computing are both more resilient to outside damage like natural disasters or hardware failure.
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Cloud storage and cloud computing both take maintenance tasks out of your hands.
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Cloud storage and cloud computing both can scale up or down as your needs change.
Differences between Cloud Storage and Cloud Computing
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Cloud storage generally does not do anything to your data other than host it where you can access it online. Cloud computing allows you to do things with your data.
Cloud Computing often requires some level of cloud storage to be effective, though many systems offer basic storage for what would be considered reasonable use.
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Cloud storage is passive because you can use it as an archive and rarely touch it and still get full value out of it. Cloud computing is active because if you’re not actively using the platform’s service, you’re not getting value out of it.
Cloud storage holds your data, whether you’re accessing and using that data every day or just using it as a backup system. Cloud computing needs your data to work, but is explicitly all about using and transforming your data to perform whatever actions you need, from office applications to high-end computation.
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Cloud storage doesn’t require much computational hardware, just hard drive space, and the software to manage it. Cloud computing needs more potentially much more processing power, depending on the application.
This is why companies tend to offer either storage or computing, not both unless they’re world leaders in internet services like Microsoft, Amazon or Google.
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Cloud storage is beneficial for both individual personal use and business-level use. Cloud computing is mostly, aimed primarily at business applications.
This does depend on the level of service, however. Consumer-level cloud computing services exist like webmail, Office 365 or the Google Suite apps and so forth. However, the majority of cloud services are business services moved to the cloud.
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