There is a feeling of unknown that some people take with them when considering cloud computing. It is good that businesses and consumers have a healthy skepticism when it comes to new (not that cloud computing is particularly new) and unknown technologies - one must question the worth and weigh up the benefits with the potential costs.And with the notion of cloud computing cropping up more and more in everyday life, from television adverts to being casually dropped into conversation, it’s important to be clear of the facts.Cloud computing in particular receives some doubts due to the nature in which it works. Usually, when you have data, you store in locally. With a personal computer, you might store your photos and documents on your computers hard drive. This gives users a sense that they have their data close to them; they obviously can't 'see' that data, but the sense that it is near them (and far from from others) provides a feeling of security. But with cloud computing, you are storing that data on someone else's resources.You might be accessing it and editing it on your own computer, but it is being stored far, far away on the cloud providers servers. Because of this, some people feel worried that there data is at more of a risk of being lost - they can’t ‘look after’ it in the same way as they could if it were stored on their own computer - and feel hesitant to place their precious data on the cloud.

Your data in the cloud is as secure as it could be

However, the reality couldn't be further from the truth. You data is almost certainly more secure being stored on the cloud. Cloud computing providers have far better hardware and resources than you do - so the chance of their hardware failing is much smaller.How many times have you, or someone you know, had a hard-drive or similar storage device fail? And how many times have they called you at 7.00am in the morning screaming that their important presentation or end-of-year coursework has disappeared? Did you make a backup? You ask. The answer to that last question is rarely pleasant.Hard-drives fail, and that is the nature of them. But even though the quality of the storage devices used by cloud computing providers is far greater than those you would use at home or in the office, theirs can fail too (although this is usually due to an unpredictable accident or disaster, like flooding for example).

Fail-safe backup plans

This is why cloud computing providers have data backed up in various places. Should their hardware fail, your data is still safe, secure and accessible. It is, after all, in their best interests that your data is safe. Their entire business revolves around the storage of other peoples data and if the eventuality of someone losing some precious files became public, they would very likely lose an awful lot of business.The backup systems and contingency plans cloud providers have in place are thorough, and the teams of professionals they have maintaining and tending for their servers is enough to mean these backup plans are rarely made use of.