Built on the learnings of solutions such as NGINX, HAProxy, hardware load balancers, and cloud load balancers, Envoy runs alongside every application and abstracts the network by providing common features in a platform-agnostic manner. Originally built at Lyft, Envoy is a high performance C++ distributed proxy designed for single services and applications, as well as a communication bus and “universal data plane” designed for large microservice “service mesh” architectures. It is simply an orders of magnitude larger problem to network and debug a set of intertwined distributed services versus a single monolithic application. Make sure to check out our roundup of the best external hard drives for other storage options to consider.As on the ground microservice practitioners quickly realize, the majority of operational problems that arise when moving to a distributed architecture are ultimately grounded in two areas: networking and observability. Keep in mind that while we strongly recommend cloud storage for students, a reliable external hard drive is never a bad choice for storage, either. IDrive, meanwhile, is perfect for students who need lots of long-term storage capacity and end-to-end encryption for a great price. Dropbox is another excellent choice if you're looking for something perfect for collaboration, while OneDrive and iCloud are great if you're using a Windows 11 or macOS machine, respectively. Our overall favorite is Google Drive, which offers plenty of free storage, has integration with other Google productivity apps, can be used to easily share files with others, and works on phones, tablets, and computers across the Windows, Apple, and Android ecosystems.

You should also make sure that the storage solution you opt for has good encryption security, as well as compatibility with the devices you daily-drive while churning through classwork. It's important to make sure that you're choosing a provider that offers a good amount of storage for the price, and if you need to collaborate with others, it's also a good idea to pick a service that makes sharing files easy. When picking a cloud storage service to use, there are several things students should consider.

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