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Networks and the Internet: Question 6

Syllabus 2.1

Multiple choice AS 1 mark

Meridian Bookkeeping currently saves every client file on the hard disk inside each accountant's own desktop computer. The office manager is considering switching to a cloud storage service instead, so that files are kept on servers run by an external provider and reached over the internet.

Which statement correctly describes what is meant by cloud computing?

Choose an answer to check it, then compare with the worked solution below.
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Worked solution

Why B is correct

Cloud computing means storing data, and often also running software or processing that data, on servers that belong to an external provider rather than on the user’s own local device. These remote servers are physically located in the provider’s data centres, and the user reaches them over the internet, rather than reading and writing directly to their own computer’s hard disk.

For Meridian Bookkeeping, switching from local storage to a cloud storage service would mean each accountant’s files are kept on the provider’s servers instead of on their individual desktop computers, and any of them could then reach the same files over the internet from wherever they are working, rather than being tied to one specific machine.

Why the other options are wrong

  • A describes the exact opposite of cloud computing: storing and processing data purely on the user’s own local hard disk, with no remote server or internet access involved at all.
  • C confuses “cloud” with a network topology; cloud computing is a way of accessing remote storage and processing over the internet, not a particular shape of cabling between devices.
  • D describes a manual, physical off-site backup method (a USB drive kept elsewhere), which does not involve an external provider’s servers or an internet connection, so it is not cloud computing.

Final answer

B. Cloud computing means storing and processing data on remote servers, run by an external provider, accessed over the internet rather than from the user’s own local storage.