The new cloud service is expected by analysts to make a big splash in the technology market and be another big hit for Apple. Essentially, the service maintains a backup of all data on a user’s device whether it is an iPhone, iPad or computer. It then enables a user to make this data, consisting of music, ebooks, pictures, videos, contacts, calendars and other documents available instantly to all of their other devices.
Apple calls this new concept of internet data storage and retrieval “PC-free”. To demonstrate the concept today, Apple’s VP Eddy Cue took a picture with an iPhone and then, just seconds later, that picture was both backed-up on the iCloud and synced up to an iPad and a MacBook. In all, users of the new free service will be able to have up to 10 devices in sync with the cloud, making their various files available to them across multiple platforms without the hassle of connecting to a computer and running a sync.
The core of this new service is in a new highly secure $500 million data center built by Apple in North Carolina. Obviously having all of your important data sitting on a server in a data center, accessible by your Apple username a password sounds a bit risky. Apple has spent a lot of time and effort to ensure that the user’s data will not be vulnerable to hackers. Especially in the wake of recent attacks on Sony’s Playstation Network, and its user data, Apple knows that a lot is riding on the security of this new iCloud platform.
The new iCloud as well as the iOS 5 are free, and the cost for the latest OS X Lion is only $29.95 and is expected to be available next month.