How can we integrate cloud storage with workflows?

 

Due to the emergence of cloud storage, our files are no longer limited to hard drives on computers. Now we can work on laptops, tablets, smartphones, and even Portable mini computers. Despite this, many users still haven't fully integrated cloud computing into their daily work. Let's take a look at how to seamlessly integrate cloud computing into people's workflows. We will start from the most critical part: choosing the cloud service that best matches our storage media.
　　Cloud storage service
Cloud storage services are diverse. There are many potential solutions available on the market, and new services enter the cloud storage market every day. Among these services, some services are worth choosing. They can help us simply use cloud storage services like hard disks.
The best solution to meet our needs is to closely integrate with Windows File explorer so that users can open and save files as locally. Microsoft SkyDrive (soon onedrive), Google Drive, Dropbox, and mediafire all provide integration services with Windows File explorer, which means they can store users' files in local folders, it runs seamlessly on the hard disk of the user terminal and automatically synchronizes data with the cloud environment.
These services have both advantages and disadvantages. SkyDrive and Google Drive both provide Web-based productivity tools and have strong document management functions, but SkyDrive has a 2 GB file size limit (Google is 10 Gb ), therefore, it is not suitable for storing media files. Dropbox has no file size limit, but it does not provide much free storage space. Mediafire has a maximum of free storage space (10 Gb to 50 GB), but the MB file size limit allows it to only process small files. Users can register a free version of these services, and then make full use of the storage space of these services to create cost-free hard disk storage space in the air.
For Windows 8 and 8.1 users, skyedrive may be the best solution because it is embedded into the operating system itself. Skyedrive can synchronize users' system settings, passwords, IE browser tabs, and even users' basic desktop and Start Screen Settings. Now, these are all seamless.
　　Set
After selecting one or more cloud storage platforms, you will want to download the corresponding applications of the Service to the terminal. These desktop programs display an icon on the Windows taskbar for you to manage cloud storage. More importantly, it will also create a folder in the favorites folder of Windows File explorer, so that users can quickly open and save files from the cloud storage environment. Of course, this step is unnecessary for SkyDrive users in Windows 8.1.
However, Microsoft has made great changes to the way in which Windows 8.1 SkyDrive is embedded to process files. Although the SkyDrive folder in Windows 8.1 looks like a local copy of a user's file is saved, by default, these files actually only need an Internet connection to access the file. You must manually enable offline access to save or edit files locally. (Don't worry, in this case, your files will still be synchronized with Microsoft's cloud service ).
Next let's take a look at how the Modern SkyDrive app in desktop and Windows 8.1 can do this. Users do not need to worry about the Single-host SkyDrive desktop program for Windows 7 and 8 because it automatically saves local copies of files.
　　Specify the default storage location
To Make cloud storage truly seamless, you also need to specify the default storage location for your favorite programs, which corresponds to your cloud storage folder.
In Microsoft Office 2010 and 2013, you can click the options in the File menu to change the default storage location. There, the SAVE option category allows you to change the default local file storage location. You also need to check "Save to computer by default" and change the default local file location to the cloud storage folder. After you create a new document and click Save, the document is first displayed in the cloud folder.
For this function, the methods of various programs vary, but most software allows users to edit files and allow users to select the default storage location. You can point them to cloud computing folders and set them to synchronize all files. By default, it is especially convenient to save email attachments to cloud computing. If you have not used OneNote or Evernote, you can also synchronize the to-do list.
Google Drive's high storage capacity and 10 Gb file limit make it the best choice for many image files. Dropbox and SkyDrive also allow users to automatically upload photos of mobile phones or tablets to the cloud storage environment, allowing users to view photos anytime, anywhere. However, it should be noted that multimedia files occupy a lot of storage space, and free accounts do not have much storage space.
　　Manage cloud storage services
If a user uses multiple cloud storage solutions at the same time, he may want a solution that allows users to easily manage cloud drivers from a central location, to allow users to switch between applications or services.
Jolidrive is a free web-based file manager with a simple and intuitive user interface. It aggregates all the connected accounts of a user and displays their contents in a centralized manner, and allow users to access data from anywhere. Jolidrive can even provide charts to help users know how much free space each cloud service has.
To use jolidrive, you only need to create a free account and use its setup program to link all its cloud storage services. Then, users can access files of different cloud services through any desktop or mobile browser, and even play media files and edit documents through the jolidrive interface, this is a convenient feature when you use a mobile device or someone else's computer. However, you cannot move files from one service to another in jolidrive.
In addition, jolidrive provides centralized management of IOS applications for iPhone and iPad.
　　Backup
Although the user has transferred the file to the cloud computing environment, but for the user, he also wants to add local folders including cloud synchronization files to the regular backup plan, in this way, valuable information will not be lost. Of course, one advantage of cloud storage is that data is stored in the server network and is unlikely to be lost, but the risk persists, especially when your cloud storage is suddenly interrupted. This requires you to develop a regular backup plan for your terminal. After all, cloud storage does not guarantee 100% data security.

How can we integrate cloud storage with workflows?