Cloud Drive

Definition - What does Cloud Drive mean?

Cloud drive is a Web-based service that offers storage space on a remote server. Cloud drives are usually accessed over the Internet using client-side software, and are used to back up files. The cloud drive providers generally give users with a restricted volume of free online storage space and the option for more in exchange for a monthly fee.

Cloud drives let individual users or small businesses store and synchronize documents as well as other electronic media without purchasing or maintaining file servers or external hard drives. The cloud drives are ideal for backing up data of 1 terabyte (TB) or less. Cloud drive service providers maintain the cloud servers, ensuring consistent availability and quick access to stored data.

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Techopedia explains Cloud Drive

The key benefits of a cloud drive include:

Improved accessibility to a cloud data storage provider
The ability to handle data formatting and communication with the cloud data storage provider.
Effortless access to data by means of standard protocols like NFS and iSCSI
Serialized and synchronized accessibility to the same data as well as concurrent processing of read and write requests to various data
The virtualization of data storage allows a restricted volume of physical data storage to appear several times bigger than its original size
Provides less expensive, more methodical remote data storage without significant performance deterioration
Minimizes the physical data storage demands