Faculty of Business and Management

January 2016 Semester

CBCT2203

Basic Concepts of Information Technology

NAME : Angel Deborah John

MATRICULATION NO : 930113015622001
IDENTITY CARD NO : 930113-01-5622
TELEPHONE NO : 018-2699772
E-MAIL : [email protected]
NAME OF LECTURER : Natrah Binti Mohd Noor
LEARNING CENTRE : Negeri Sembilan
 CBCT2203 Basic Concepts of Information Technology

Table of Contents

No. Description Pages

1. Table of Contents 1
2. Introduction of Cloud Storage
• What is Cloud Storage and the history behind it. 2-3
• Impact of latest technological development of cloud storage
in daily lives.
3. Comparison of the current services offered by OneDrive and
Dropbox
• Comparison of General Features
• Sharing and Collaboration
• Multimedia 3-10
• Ease of Use
• Operating System and Mobile App Support
• Performance
• Security
4. Discussion of the benefits gained by using cloud storage in
organization, based on:
• Usability
• Bandwidth 10-12
• Accessibility
• Disaster recovery/ backup
• Cost saving
5. Discussion of the challenges for using cloud storage in
organization, based on:
• Usability
• Bandwidth 12-13
• Accessibility
• Data security
• Software
6. Conclusion 14
7. References 15

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What is Cloud Storage?

In these past generation, Cloud Storage has been a word of mouth. The Cloud Storage
can be nebulous as its namesake. Therefore, Cloud Storage practically means the ability to
upload files to a secondary storage off your network which is often including automated
backups. Then, these files can be accessed from any part of the world with just an internet
connection and a device that can read the file. Cloud computing and Cloud Storage is often
mixed up. Cloud computing is the sharing of two or more computers by itself but Cloud
computing on the other hand is the sharing of computer storage. Cloud Storage was believed to
have first been developed by Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider in the late 1960s. During the month
of August in 1962, J.C.R Licklider circulated a series of memos concerning ARPAnet, the direct
predecessor to the internet. In these notes, he described about the “Intergalactic Computer
Network” which is what he called it. Licklider laid the basis of cloud computing and storage
down for the first time in history.
After more than 50 years of developing, cloud storage is now widespread and becoming
more popular each year. Cloud storage has a great impact on our daily lives in the social aspect,
education aspect, healthcare aspect and also in business aspect. In social aspect, cloud storage is
often used to store personal data, pictures, movies and etc. It has so great impact that even people
buy cloud storage packages from companies just to maintain and backup their files. In education
aspect, cloud storage is used to store all the information of students and some education institutes
even upload the study materials and subject notes for the students to download and revise later
which is the reason nowadays education institutes prefer to go paperless. In healthcare aspect,
cloud storage is used to store the patients details and reports so that it can be viewed by other
hospitals when it is necessary. Lastly, in business aspect, cloud storage is used to store projects,
business plan, business proposal and much more for third parties to view them. Thus, with this
technology healthcare, education and business as moved to a whole new level and had gone
paperless. The main reason people uses the cloud services is to store their data and to act as a
backup plan in case of loss or corruption of data.
There are four types of cloud storages; namely private cloud storage, personal cloud
storage, public cloud storage and hybrid cloud storage. Private cloud storage is a form of cloud
storage where the enterprise and the cloud storage provider are linked in the enterprise’s data
center which is managed by the storage provider. Personal Cloud Storage is more like public

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cloud storage but it only applies to storing an individual’s data in the cloud and providing that
individual the access to the data from anywhere and anytime. Public Cloud Storage is where the
enterprise and storage service provider are separate and there is no cloud resources stored in the
enterprise's data center. The enterprise's public cloud storage is fully managed by the storage
service provider. Hybrid Cloud Storage is a combination of public and private cloud storage
where some critical data resides in the enterprise's private cloud while other data is stored and
accessible from a public cloud storage provider.

Comparison of services offered by OneDrive and Dropbox

OneDrive and Dropbox are popular companies that provide cloud storage services. There are a
few differences between the both cloud service provider even they provide the same services.
Microsoft OneDrive has been a word of mouth lately among the cloud storage providers due to
its latest features, a tight integration with Microsoft Office and they have an impressive pricing
for their packages and products. I have reviewed their services and found out they are indeed to
be a worthy competitor among the other cloud storage service providers. But the question here is,
is it comparable to Dropbox? Dropbox has been here for quite a long time and they are able to
keep their impressive feature set and rock solid performance all way thru. Let’s compare the both
cloud storage service providers.

Comparison of General Features

Both services support these features:

 Sync and access files across all devices

 Desktop file folder with automatic sync
 Choose desktop folder location
 Share links to files and folders
 Set shared file access as read-only or full-editing
 Restore previous versions of files
 View and edit Microsoft Office documents in the web browser
 Create and share photo albums
 Selective folder sync

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They both carry an impressive feature set, but OneDrive has a few more tricks:

 Embed codes to stick folders in a webpage

 Fetch – Access local computer files remotely in OneDrive webpage (PCs only)

Both features are good to have, but being able to access your computer’s files remotely with
Fetch for those who worry about security, it is an optional feature.

Sharing and Collaboration

Both services offers these features:

 Generate links to files and folders and send e-mail with those links via the website
 Able to configure to be read-only or full edit access
 Able to view and download files without needing a login

Unfortunately, OneDrive requires a login to upload files, which can be an annoying restriction.
But at Dropbox, it is clear that how much more capable a collaboration service can be. Dropbox
has a plus point with these additional features:

 Get sharing links copied directly into your clipboard from the desktop software
 Designate external editors who can manage user access rights (Dropbox Pro)
 Secure collaborate/shared links with a password (Dropbox Pro required)
 Request file uploads from without requiring a Dropbox login
 Subscribe to an RSS feed that updates you on changes made to your Dropbox
 Files and folders shared with you sync into Dropbox

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OneDrive Sharing Options

Dropbox Pro sharing options

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Notice that these Dropbox Pro options has full control over collaboration at a well worth of $100
a year, which is a good deal since OneDrive is free but does not have full control over
collaboration. Dropbox really outclasses OneDrive with feature like an RSS feed for file updates
and an optional editor pool.

Multimedia

Multimedia OneDrive Dropbox

Photos and  Able to store and organize photos within albums and share
videos links to them
 Auto-tagging (compare pictures
to a database of objects and
themes, and will tag them like
#animal, or #city, or #cat. It’s
not always accurate, but when it _
works, it’s a pretty neat way to
organize photos.

Musics  Any songs added to OneDrive’s  Dropbox will only store

music folder automatically sync music and won’t even let
up with Microsoft’s Xbox (soon you stream it from its apps.
to be Groove) Music Collection
and from there, you can stream
your music to anything with an
Xbox/Groove Music app
 This is all free, no file
downloads, no subscription
required.

This combined with OneDrive’s soon to be unlimited storage makes OneDrive the better option
for those with extensive multimedia collections.

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Dropbox gallery on the left. OneDrive gallery on the right.

OneDrive is better for music collectors.

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Ease of Use
The both services install a folder on your computer which lets you to work with your files and
does the uploading work for you in the background. Though they have different methods of
sharing files, both are easy to be used thanks to their well-designed mobile apps and website UI.

Operating System and Mobile App Support

The mobile app support is excellent on both OneDrive and Dropbox, as they both support iOS,
Android, Blackberry, Windows, Windows Phone, and soon will be supporting Windows 10.

OneDrive on Android.

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Dropbox on Android.
Both of the mobile apps of OneDrive and Dropbox enables you to:

 Download, upload, move, share links and collaborative invites to your files and folders.

 Automatically upload your photos from your camera roll when you activate it.

Dropbox and OneDrive’s desktop software supports both Windows and MacOS, but only
Dropbox offers Linux packages as well as a source file to compile. OneDrive has it but it is some
third-party options.

Performance
Both services offers solid performance. Even though OneDrive is slightly faster on uploads,
while Dropbox is slightly faster on downloads. The difference is not large enough to be
noticeable in an average task.

Dropbox OneDrive
Average Download 15.1 Mb/s 14.87 Mb/s
Max Download 17.9 Mb/s 16.14 Mb/s
Average Upload 5.01 Mb/s 4.99 Mb/s
Max Upload 6.58 Mb/s 6.99 Mb/s

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Security
Both OneDrive and Dropbox offers:

 Security of all file transfers with 128-bit SSL/TLS encryption

 Two-factor authentication (which is great and secure enough)

But only Dropbox offers this additional feature:

 Encrypts all user files at rest with 256-bit encryption. (Difficult to hack)

Bottom line
Technically, Dropbox takes more wins here than OneDrive.
If you are security conscious and tend to do a lot of file sharing and collaborative editing with a
team, then Dropbox is the choice for you.
However, if you need lots of storage or need to store a music or movie collection, then OneDrive
is the choice for you.
Bottom line, OneDrive and Dropbox are excellent services with their own benefits and fallbacks.

Benefits gained by using cloud storage in an organization

Usability
The meaning of usability is a quality attribute that assesses how easy user interfaces are to use.
All cloud storage services have desktop folders for Mac’s and PC’s. Some even have for
mobiles. This allows easy usage for organizations to just drag and drop files between the cloud
storage and their local storage without the need of in depth IT knowledge. Cloud storage
solutions are easy to set up with just clicks. In most cases, organizations just need to create an
account and choose the plan that they would want and access it from anywhere they want.

Bandwidth
The meaning of bandwidth is the amount of stuff can pass through your network at once. When it
comes to doing business in the cloud, you’ll need to know what bandwidth your business will
really need once you migrate your software, infrastructure and/or storage to the cloud. You can
get this information from the IT person in your organization. You can pay for huge bandwidth

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plan and spend less time waiting for uploads and downloads and more time being productive.
Time is basically money in any field, and for many industries, low bandwidth means lost sales,
slower innovation, and missed opportunity. With a good bandwidth of your cloud storage plan,
you can also avoid emailing files to individuals and instead send a web link to recipients through
your email.

Accessibility
The BEST part of having cloud storage in your organization is being able to access stored files
from anywhere via Internet connection. For example, a person went to an important meeting
without bringing the file that he needed, he can easily call a person in the office to upload the file
which then he is able to access and view it. Employees are no longer tied to their office
computers, and that means they can have the freedom to work at home with the permission of
their employer. This helps people with disability to work from home as well. Any computer can
be used to log on to the cloud service to access stored documents or even browse the web for the
information that a user has stored in their profile.

Disaster Recovery
Disaster Recovery is a type of security plan that protects an organization from the effects of
negative events with the help of backup of the remote machine in the cloud-based platform.
Organizations should have an emergency backup plan ready online in case of negative events
like fire breakout. The best choice of providing a second copy of important files is by cloud
storage services because it is in the internet, it is safe, and it can be downloaded anytime and
anywhere. It is safe because these files are store at a remote location or data centers around the
world and can be accessed with just an internet connection. There are a few key benefit
companies gain from backup disaster recovery in the cloud:
 Improved data protection
 Easy to be used without being an IT expert
 Fast implementation
 Lower energy consumption (no need of server rooms)
 Agility and scalability ( able to increase storage capacity painlessly)

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Cost Savings
Organizations and businesses often try to reduce their operating cost to gain more profit. This
can be done by reducing the cost to build a server room or server PC and migrate the important
files to cloud storage. This can save thousands of dollars as it cost about only 3 cents per
gigabyte to store data on cloud storage. Organizations can see the additional saving through their
company operations expenditure.

Challenges gained by using cloud storage in an organization

Usability
Organizations that uses cloud storage should be careful when their employees are using
drag/drop to move a document into the cloud storage folder. They should copy and paste not
directly move it from the original folder to the cloud storage folder. This will result in moving
your document permanently from its original folder to the cloud storage location. Users will need
some training on how to use the cloud storage which will consume time depending on the users
capability of learning.

Bandwidth
All cloud storage have a specific bandwidth allowance. Bandwidth is basically the rate of
transfer of data to the network. The biggest bandwidth challenge of the cloud is that
organizations tend to overlook or not bothered to consider it. The organizations current
bandwidth may support their current operations, but they should reconsider it whether it can
support operations when there are on the cloud. Cloud computing will change how your business
operates, in some fashions, requiring you to rely on the internet and connectivity more than you
have in the past. A miscalculation of the required bandwidth may lead to loss of business and
productivity over time.

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Accessibility
Some small organizations do not need internet connection for their business. They would think
that by using cloud storage, it will only bring more expenditures to the organization. On the other
hand, other organization can’t download the file from the cloud without an internet connection.
This is also inconvenient as when you need something urgently in a remote place where there is
no internet connection, you will not be able to do it as you are totally depending on the internet
connection.

Data Security
Data security is also one of the major challenge in cloud storage. This is because there are many
issue regarding the safety and privacy of important data stored remotely. The possibility of
having data leak out with other organizations especially the competitors makes some
organizations uncomfortable. According to Cloud Security Alliance, data breach and cloud
service abuse rank among the greatest cloud security threats in 2013. The legal implications of
data and applications being held by a third party are complex and not well understood. There is
also a potential lack of control and transparency when a third party holds the data. Therefore,
important documents or files are not recommended to be upload in the cloud as it is not always
100% save and someone might steal your business ideas or any other important files.

Software
There are also software challenges if organization would want to implement cloud storage in
their organization. Among it is the need of having that specific cloud storage software in your
device. For example, if the organization want to be able to manipulate their files locally through
multiple devices, they have to download the software on all the devices. This is much time
consuming as you need to wait for the download and troublesome if the cloud storage provider
does not have a certain version of the application for some devices such as Mac or Tablet.

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Conclusion
Although there are many challenges of implementing cloud storage in organizations, the benefits
of it certainly outweighs the challenges. Organizations should look to the cloud for cost-effective
ways to store, manage and leverage the data they need to run their businesses. The cost savings,
disaster‐recovery, security, and accessibility are just a few intriguing benefits to
businesses. Cloud storage can reduce costs, simplify IT management, improve user experience,
and allow employees to work and collaborate from remote locations. There are a few
recommendations that cloud storage should consider in their future upcoming, they are:

Increasing use of mobile devices:

Laptop sales have overtaken desktops over the last few years and the trend will continue as an
increasing range of mobile devices such as notebooks, PDAs and mobile phones incorporate
many of the features found on a desktop-based PC only about ten years ago, including Internet
access and custom application functionality. Therefore, cloud service providers should take note
of these and improve on their software and applications so that it is compatible to all type of
devices.

Hardware capability improvements:

The inevitable improvements in processor speed and increased memory capacities across IT
infrastructure will mean that the cloud will be able to support more complex environments with
improved performance capabilities as standard.

Legislation and security:

As larger companies consider the cloud computing model, vendors and providers will respond,
but within the terms set out by their potential customers. As there are still many issues with
respect to data privacy and transfer of data across international borders, the cloud service
providers need to continue to invest time and effort in order to meet the necessary laws required
to operate within some of the business areas of their major customers.

(2921 words)

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