The Cloud Has Changed The Way We Access Software

By Author: Deepali Bohra
Total Articles: 2
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The “Cloud” is the latest and greatest method for delivering software solutions that help make our lives easier and our businesses more scalable and profitable. This includes software as basic as iTunes’s storage of a song, or as complex as Salesforce’s service offerings. As the Internet provides faster data rates with Web 2.0, more and more companies will be able to offer their products, services, games, programs, and file storage to anyone with access to the web. All of these “access from anywhere” solutions no longer require a physical copy to be installed on a user’s computer, smart phone, iPod, or tablet to use them.

Though Facebook is not widely considered an example of a Cloud service, it offers a great example of just what the Cloud can provide. Facebook is a social media network that is fully functional on any device that can access the Internet, and despite all of the connections, applications, games, and software that is found on Facebook, it requires very little temporary space on a consumer’s hard drive to exist and be used.

What the Cloud, or rather namely, the software that operates ...
... from the Cloud, does require in order to be accessed and utilized is your digital identity, a.k.a, your credentials, or simply put… your usernames and passwords. Each and every social media web site, music storage service, file backup service, and virtual application requires users to sign-up and sign-in to their service.

We like to store our favorite iTunes music or backup irreplaceable photos of our children or family vacations using online Cloud services. However, most of us still hesitate to store our personally identifiable information on the Internet even though we make use of online banking. We have read too many stories, especially in recent years of malicious hackers gaining access and stealing our private and financial data from some pretty big names (i.e., Sony Playstation Network, Citibank, TJX Companies).

As Cloud computing continues to grow we are continually required to sign-in to more and more online services (e.g., new email accounts for a new job, new web applications and services, or even just to read news or post our opinions). Keeping track of so many different passwords can be very tedious. Because we can only remember a handful of unique, complex passwords, we all too often make the mistake of reusing quite a few of them. This increases the probability of a hacker gaining access into multiple accounts if only a single account is compromised. The hackers try the same username and password combinations in many other Cloud-based accounts and applications on the Internet and access a user’s information. Single Sign On for the Cloud is the solution that will allow you to successfully traverse the Cloud in a convenient and secure manner.

That is why SmartSignin provides a one-stop-shop where consumers and businesses alike can go to manage all of their Internet usernames and passwords that make up their digital identities. Using SmartSignin you can create a complex and unique password for each and every web and cloud service to which you subscribe. If the website of one your services is compromised by a malicious hacker, your exposure will be limited to that one web service alone. You no longer need to reuse the same password across multiple online accounts.

SmartSignin provides superior protection for your privacy and confidential data. The patented Smart-Key algorithm that was developed in a joint-venture with Ganita labs, a Cryptography lab at the University of Toronto, ensures no single point of failure in the application. In simple words, your passphrase (key) is split into multiple parts and only you can put them together to access your private data.

For More information log on to SmartSignin