This article will explain what is cloud computing and why, nowadays, a whole enterprise could be run without having any office or server. Cloud computing allows companies to run with only a computer and an internet connexion. All the services they would use are online and everyone – even if they have hundreds of employees – could work from home and have access to the company’s data, wherever they are on the planet. That is what cloud computing is all about. Welcome to the future of IT.
cloud computing definition
Cloud computing is a general term that refers to a couple of different
types of technologies. The thing they all have in common is the fact that, with cloud computing, a business is outsourcing parts of its IT infrastructure – and that they need a stable internet connexion.
It could be a software, storage space, backup management, emails, etc.
The supplier’s services will be accessible from anywhere in the world
and they will be managing the supporting infrastructure for a monthly fee (other types of payments also exist).
Cloud computing is really the opposite of having an in-house IT infrastructure to support a business. Instead of having your own infrastructure, you rent it to a specialized company. Your data (or service) is therefore located on a remote server instead of being on your local server.
Simply put, you outsource, in part or in full, your IT infrastructure.
Why is it called “cloud” computing
The term “cloud” represents an abstract – or unknown – location for
your data. Abstract because your data could be located in North America or Asia or both and it has not incidence or your activities, as long as you have an internet connection.
The diagram for cloud computing is also represented in the form of a
cloud.cloud computing history – It’s not a new concept
The term cloud computing has emerged around the end of the 2000-2010 decade, but it was not a new concept even back then. Cloud computing in the large sense has been around since the 1990’s.
Even at the very beginning of the internet, websites were still hosted on web servers owned by an outside company (like this one is). It wasn’t called cloud computing back then, but it is the same principle.
The CRM Salesforce.com was really one of the first cloud computing software (SAAS) when they launched in 1999. For the first time, you had a software
that was a 100% web based without having to install and maintain the infrastructure around. You don’t have to have an IT infrastructure to use it, you simply pay a monthly fee. It was really the first of his kind. That was in itself a revolution.
But the concept really started getting a lot of attention when Google launched their Google Apps in 2007. For the first time, you could edit documents and spreadsheets on an online application, without having to install anything on your
computer. You just needed a browser and an internet connection.
Since then, the concept of cloud computing has been refined and more and more products use that concept. You can be sure that you will see more services offered in the cloud in the future.
How do you pay for cloud computing?
Pay-per-usage
On a pay-per-usage basis, you’ll pay only for the usage you make. This is especially used for data storage. For example, Dropbox.com prices
start at 10$/month for a 100 gigabytes of data storage.
Pay-per-user
On a pay-per-user basis means that each user has to pay a monthly fee.
This is specially used in the software industry (SAAS). For example, SalesForce.com monthly fees start at 5$/user/month for their basic service and can go as high as a couple of hundred dollars per user/month.
Final note
Now that you know what is cloud computing, investigate a little bit more on the types of cloud that exists and the advantages and the security
risks for each one. When used with the right knowledge, cloud computing can
help your business save money and be more productive.
Also, there is now a lot of cloud computing providers, make sure you choose the right one.
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