It can be defined
as “Computing in which access is gained
through internet to data and files, or software applications which are stored
on remote machines owned by somebody else”. In general terms Cloud Computing can be for
anything that involves delivering hosted services over the Internet.
Cloud computing has distinct characteristics
that differentiates it from hosting is that, the service is on demand; a user
can have as much or as little of a service at any given time; and the service is
fully managed by the provider. A good example of Cloud computing is you online
email service of Yahoo!, Gmail, or Hotmail; where the vendor houses all the
hardware and the software necessary to support the email service. The only
thing required is an internet connection thorough which you log-in using a web
browser. You can access it from anywhere as it is not physically installed on
your computer.
Cloud computing is catching on very fast and it
is not just a fad any more-simple reason being that the traditional
computing is very expensive and requires
a variety of hardware and software to be purchased and a whole team of
professionals to keep it running at client level. With cloud computing client
side management of hardware and software is eliminated and it becomes the
responsibility of the vendor-which means the clients only pays for what it has
used, upgrades are automatic, and applications can be scaled up or down easily.
With Cloud computing you just need open a browser, log-in and start using the application
or update your data or files.
Cloud computing can be very beneficial for small
or mid-sized businesses, as they don’t need to purchase lot of hardware and
software to run their business applications and storing of data. Business can
store their information in the cloud and pay only for the space utilized.
Benefits of Cloud Computing includes:
- Cost Savings — Cloud computing can bring hardware costs
down, where businesses won’t need to buy the fastest computer with the
most memory, or a large hard drive. Instead, an inexpensive computer
terminal including a monitor, input devices like a keyboard and mouse and
just enough processing power to connect to the cloud system would be
sufficient. Cloud
service providers do the system maintenance thus further reducing
maintenance requirements.
- Scalability/Flexibility — Businesses will be able to start
with a small operation and grow to a large operation, and then scale back
if necessary. The flexibility of cloud computing allows businesses to use
extra resources at peak times, enabling them to satisfy consumer demands. Cloud
computing gives its subscriber’s wide access to computer applications. The
will not have to buy a set of software or software licenses for every
employee. Instead, the company could pay a metered fee to a cloud
computing company.
- Reliability/Mobility — Cloud service providers use
multiple redundant sites which can support business continuity and
disaster recovery. As systems are accessible from anywhere, workers have
increased productivity.
Conclusion:
Cloud computing provides many options for the
everyday computer user as well as large and small businesses. It has opened up
the world of computing to a broader range of uses of resources by giving access
through any internet connection.
Cloud computing is a model
for enabling everywhere, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool
of computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and
services). Clients would be able to access their applications and data from anywhere
at any time. They could access the cloud computing system using any computer
linked to the Internet. Data wouldn't be confined to a hard drive on one user's
computer or even on a corporation's internal network.
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