iCloud: Apple’s Service To Store Your Digital Content

iCloud: Apple's Service To Store Your Digital Content

iCloud: Apple’s Service To Store Your Digital Content

iCloud is a service from Apple that stores a user’s content. This includes contacts, mail, calendars, documents, books, applications, games, and more. It wirelessly pushes the stored content to associated devices and computers, automatically keeping everything up to date. With iCloud, you have access to all your content, wherever you are.

The service allows users to store data on remote computer servers for download to multiple devices. These devices include iOS-based devices running iOS 5 or later, and personal computers running OS X 10.7.2 Lion or later, or Microsoft Windows Vista service pack 2 or later.

iCloud replaces Apple’s MobileMe service, acting as a data syncing center for email, contacts, calendars, bookmarks, reminders, iWork documents, photos and other data.

The service also allows users to wirelessly back up their iOS devices to iCloud, instead of manually doing so using iTunes. Users can also share photos, music, and games instantly by linking their accounts via airdrop wireless.

If you are an employee of an organization, certain features will depend on company policy. For example, the boss can disable Photo Stream, iCloud Keychain, Documents in the cloud, etc. All these features can be disabled using a configuration profile. Even more, with a thirdparty MDM solution in place, managed apps can be prevented from backing up to iCloud. This option gives users the benefits of using iCloud for personal data while keeping corporate information from being stored in the cloud.

You’ll need your Apple ID to access iCloud. An Apple ID is a personal account that iPhone users need to access to Apple services like iTunes, iCloud, FaceTime, iMessages, or the App Store. In fact, in order to get the most out of these services, people use their own Apple ID. If the user doesn’t have one yet, they can create an Apple ID before they have their device so configuration can be as quick as possible!

As a business solution, the IT department can configure company-owned devices through mobile device management (MDM) before the users receive them, without having to physically touch the devices. Through the Device Enrollment Program, it becomes possible to automate MDM enrollment and skip basic setup screens, streamlining the device activation process. Users can get up and running quickly, and IT can ensure ongoing management for these devices.