IT Glossary
What is cloud storage?
Company files on the major providers’ servers: reachable anywhere, synced across devices, shared under control — the office without a file server.
The file server in the cupboard — with its shared folder, its permissions set years ago by somebody who has since left, and its uncertain backup — has had a successor for a long time. Cloud storage puts company files on the infrastructure of the large providers, typically arriving as part of whichever productivity suite already handles the email, with access from anywhere, synchronisation across devices, controlled sharing by link and simultaneous collaboration on documents. Those capabilities are what made hybrid work unremarkable. Beyond the convenience, three subjects deserve a manager’s attention. Organisation first: a migration that copies the chaos of the old server into the cloud produces chaos reachable from anywhere, so structure by team or process, permissions granted to groups rather than to individuals, and sharing hygiene all belong in the move rather than after it. Then the vital, almost universally misunderstood distinction: synchronisation is not backup — a file deleted or encrypted by ransomware on a laptop is deleted or encrypted in the cloud too, synchronously — and while version history and recycle bins soften small incidents, they have time limits and can be emptied by an attacker holding the account. And finally cost at scale, because the gigabytes included with office subscriptions cover documents, while large archives of photographs, video and project files have far cheaper homes in object storage.
Let’s talk about your project
Message us on WhatsApp or send an email — you talk directly to a developer.
office@northdan.com · +40 752 070 247
Why it matters for your business
The office becomes optional for files
Documents are reachable and editable from anywhere and synchronised across every device, which makes hybrid work and small satellite offices possible without special infrastructure.
Collaboration without a final version three
Simultaneous editing with version history replaces attachments circulating by email: one document, always current, carrying a record of who changed what and when.
Controlled sharing instead of attachments
Links with granular rights — read, edit, expiry — go to clients and partners, so the document stays with you and access can be granted and withdrawn at will.
Frequently asked questions
If our files are synchronised to the cloud, do we have a backup?
No, and this is the most dangerous confusion in the whole subject: synchronisation faithfully propagates deletions and ransomware encryption alike. Version history and the platform recycle bin soften small incidents but have limits in time and coverage, and an attacker with account access can empty them. A real backup of cloud data is a separate service holding independent copies with their own retention, unreachable from the compromised account. It costs little and is exactly the net that is missing on the worst day.
Does the choice between the major storage platforms actually matter?
Usually the ecosystem already chosen for email and documents decides it, and native integration outweighs the differences, which on the big questions of reliability, security and collaboration are now broadly comparable. Decision energy is better spent on what genuinely differs in practice: the folder structure, the sharing policies and the dedicated backup. Done well, either platform serves excellently; done badly, either becomes a mess that is now reachable from anywhere.
How do we keep sharing under control so sensitive documents stay private?
Three levels. Strict defaults, with external sharing disabled or restricted organisation-wide and exceptions granted on specific folders. Hygiene at creation, meaning links addressed to named people with an expiry date rather than the reflexive anyone-with-the-link option. And periodic audit, since both major platforms report what is shared externally and a quarterly review catches accumulation. Add one key moment: offboarding checklists should include the links that person created.
Let’s talk about your project
Message us on WhatsApp or send an email — you talk directly to a developer.
office@northdan.com · +40 752 070 247