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F UT UR E F OC U S
The cloud
– it’s not an illusion
JENNY MATHEWS
‘I’VE LOOKED AT CLOUDS FROM BOTH SIDES NOW;
FROM UP AND DOWN, AND STILL SOMEHOW, IT’S
CLOUD’S ILLUSIONS I RECALL; I REALLY DON’T
KNOW CLOUDS AT ALL’ (Joni Mitchell)
A
t a recent media roundtable,
Ag Outlook 2016, Ernst
Janovsky of Absa Agribusiness
remarked that we need to embrace
technology. Technology will play
a key role in helping farmers
to thrive and meet global food
demands. We have already looked
at a few different useful technologies which are available like drones
and computer-driven tractors, but
this month my thoughts are of
CLOUDS!
Like most farmers I tend to watch
the skies closely. I love watching
clouds in all their majestic formations. Clouds heighten my awareness of God the Creator and fill
me with awe! I love it when thunder clouds roll in bringing rain. I
also remember happy moments
lying on my back, watching
clouds drift by, trying to identify
the shapes against the blue sky…
But never could I have imagined
that one day I would be thinking
about “the Cloud” as a tool for my
business!
A recent phone call from Son
No.2 had me listening to his sad
tale that his faithful computer
from university had “crashed” and
54
he’d “lost EVERYthing”!!! All his
information, all his photo’s …
ALL gone. The technician said the
laptop’s brain was “fried”- What
a calamity! IF ONLY my son had
been using “The Cloud” then all
his information would have been
stored there, the computer could
have “crashed” - and the biggest
disaster would have been the need
to purchase a new computer!
Actually, most of us are using
the cloud already, whether it’s
via email, instagram or facebook
uploads. But there is a difference
to using the cloud through these
tools and actively choosing it as a
tool and getting to know how to
use it to our own benefit.
SO WHAT EXACTLY IS THE CLOUD?
It is not a physical thing or place;
rather it is a network of servers.
When something is ‘in the cloud’
it means it’s stored on Internet
servers instead of on your computer’s hard drive. If you take a
photo with your cell phone it
is stored on your phone’s internal memory drive but once you
upload and post that picture to
Instagram, Pinterest or Facebook
you are effectively uploading it to
the cloud.
OKT/NOV 2016 • SENWES Scenario
WHY DO PEOPLE CHOOSE TO
USE THE CLOUD?
The main reason for using the
cloud is convenience and reliability. All web-based email services
like Gmail and Yahoo use the
cloud; so the information is stored
on servers and not the computer’s
hard drive. This means you can
recover your information from any
computer with an internet connection. It also means that if anything happens to your computer,
your emails are recoverable. This is
why many students actually email
themselves their files at the end
of a work session - Imagine the
heartbreak if an almost completed
dissertation were to be lost on a
“crashed “computer!
All types of information can be
stored in the cloud including files,
emails, photographs and video
clips. Then these are accessible
from any computer or mobile
device with internet connection.
The cloud is a useful way to ‘back
up’ data. You can even set your
computer to automatically back
up your data to the cloud, so if
ever your computer is lost, stolen
or damaged the files are still recoverable from the cloud. The cloud
also makes it possible to share files
with several people at the same
time if you so wish. For example,
you can upload a batch of photos
to a folder which you then share
with interested friends or team
members by adding them as interested parties.