What is Cloud computing?

What is Cloud computing?

Cloud computing is named so because the data and applications exist on a “cloud” of Web servers. Cloud computing is a technology that uses the internet and central remote servers to maintain data and applications. Cloud computing allows consumers and businesses to use applications without installation and access their personal files at any computer with internet access. This technology allows for much more efficient computing by centralizing storage, memory, processing and bandwidth. Many people have been confusing cloud computing with ‘Utility Computing’ or ‘Grid Computing’ and so are many companies who in their proclamation of providing “Cloud Computing” actually provide the service of Utility Computing.

In a grid computing system, networked computers are able to access and use the resources of every other computer on the network whereas in cloud computing systems that usually only applies to the back end. Utility computing is a business model where one company pays another company for access to computer applications or data storage. In this way, utility computing is relatively straightforward. Cloud computing, in contrast, is much less direct. While all the services are still being rented, the company knows far less about the source of the services. Users still pay for what they use, but the company providing the services utilizes a much more complex system of infrastructure and software, usually involving grid networks that support multiple tasks at once. Thus cloud computing is actually more powerful, since it does not rely on any one source. By spreading out the task load, cloud computing can be a fast and effective means of computing, often with simplified troubleshooting and less maintenance overall.

Few of the advantages of Cloud Computing Technology are:

·                   Automatic upgrades: The greatest advantage of using Cloud computing technology is that the company would not have to spend time and resources to upgrade and integrate their technology with the greatest and the latest version.

·                   Easy Web-services integration: Cloud computing technology is much easier and quicker to integrate with a company’s applications (both traditional software and cloud computing infrastructure-based), whether third-party or homegrown.

·                   No hardware or software to install: The beauty of cloud computing technology is its simplicity and in the fact that it requires significantly fewer capital expenditures to get up and running. Interesting.

·                   Faster and lower-risk deployment: With Cloud Computing technology applications get live in a matter of weeks or at maximum just few months even with extensive customization or integration.

·                   Support for deep customizations: The cloud computing infrastructure not only allows deep customization and application configuration but also preserves all those customizations even during upgrades.