Benefits Of Cloud Computing.

Cloud Computing is an internet-based computer network, where a resource, software and applications are shared to be utilized by other computers connecting to it. This is a whole new form of computing concept. Why is this novel concept referred to as cloud computing? It is because the internet is often visualized as a big cloud consisting of a large network of computers connected to each other.

In essence cloud computing can be defined as a set of computers connected together sharing applications stored on the internet-based server allowing thousands of users from all around the world to access something without having to download and install anything on their own computers. An example of this would be Google Docs.
So what is the big deal about cloud computing? What makes it so fabulous? Here are just a few of the reasons:
                                         

• Savings Through Reduced Energy Usage: Using cloud computing technology the need to maintain room temperatures to cool down servers goes down compared to the old way of computing.
• Easy Backup & Recovery: Servers that run inside a virtual machine can be stored in one image file containing the entire system configuration and settings. In case a server crashes, you don’t have to scratch from beginning to perform reinstallation and reconfiguration. Simply take a copy of the saved image, restore data from last backup and the server will be back up and running again. You can save time, effort and resources.
• Easy Deployment: Virtual servers can be cloned as much as possible and can be run on another machine without having to change configuration, hence reducing the workload of IT staff and expediting the process.
• Maintenance & Management Made Easy: Fewer number of servers will automatically reduce the time and cost to manage servers.
• Slashing Of Hardware Costs: Companies can cut down on hardware investment because by using cloud computing they do not have to purchase additional servers, peripherals and other network gear.
• Lesser Space Demands: The fewer the number of servers the less space needed to store the network equipment, the server is placed on a shared server or data center.
• Hardware Standardization: Hardware virtualization in cloud computing involves emulation and encapsulation so that the process of introduction and removal of a particular hardware can be carried out with ease.
• Easy Replacement and Upgrading: Replacing or upgrading a server specification can be easier to execute using cloud computing. If the parent server is overloaded and specifications are not sufficient anymore, we can easily upgrade the specification or move a virtual machine to another, more powerful server.
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There are plenty of benefits in working with cloud computing, and many outweigh the reasons why not to use cloud computing. Cloud computing is still growing and many government bodies and company organizations already use this type of network for their businesses. This type of computing allows them to focus on what matters and not to worry about technology side of things. Cloud computing does have its place, though it is not for all companies.

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What Is Cloud Computing? Explained In Simple Words

I’m sure you’ve heard the following two words being used extensively online in the last couple of years. Cloud Computing. The next time you read something about a service that mentions ‘Cloud’, you will immediately know what they mean by that, and what exactly cloud computing is and how does it work.

What is Cloud Computing and how does it work, explained in simple terms?

Actually, you’ve been using cloud computing all this time, unless you were living in a cave somewhere, and that cave somehow didn’t have an internet connection.

So let me put this in as simple terms as possible:
Cloud Computing is the ability to use the power of other computers (located somewhere else) and their software, via the Internet (or sometimes other networks), without the need to own them. They are being provided to you, as a service.

That means you don’t have to go and buy some super powerful gigantic computer system and risk have it sitting there, doing nothing. By utilizing the cloud, everything is ready for you whenever you might need it. Exactly where the hardware and software is located and how it all works doesn’t matter to you, as a user. It’s just somewhere up in the vast “cloud” that the Internet represents.
Now you know one of the reasons they call it the Cloud Computing.
One good example of someone who provides these types of cloud services would be RackSpace cloud company.

To illustrate the point even better, let’s go over one typical example of cloud computing that you must have used before (exception are those with the cave thing
from above.)

                            
  Google as an example of cloud computing

What happens when you type and search something on Google?
Have you ever thought about this? Does your PC goes through all that information, sorts it out for you and display all the relevant results? No, it doesn’t. Otherwise, you would wait much longer for a simple results page to display. A simple PC can’t process all those billions of websites in a fraction of a second, like Google does. Your PC only serves as a messenger to tell Google what you are looking for. Everything else is done by some of Google’s powerful computers located somewhere, Who-Knows-Where in the world.
Now, did you ever care about how or where that comes from? Why would you, right? Exactly. That’s a great example of how cloud computing is used.

At this point, I’m sure you understand what cloud computing is and the basic idea behind it. If that’s everything you wanted to know, you can stop here, and go enjoy your life knowing what Cloud Computing is. If you are interested in just a little tiny bit more about it, continue reading to the end (not long from here).

3 Types of Cloud Computing 

1. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is basically when you buy raw computing hardware to use over the net, usually servers, or online storage. You buy what you need and pay-as-you-go. The best and the most basic example of this type of cloud computing is buying a web hosting for your website. You pay monthly fee to a hosting company for the storage on their servers and to have them serve up files for your website from those servers.

2. Software as a Service (SaaS) is a case where you use the complete software application that’s running on someone else’s servers. The best example of this is Google Docs, which you can use for creating and storing text documents, presentations, spreadsheets and so on…

3. Platform as a Service (PaaS) is case where you create applications using web-based tools so they run on systems software and hardware provided by another company. As an example, consider a situation where you develop your own e-commerce website but have the whole thing, including the shopping cart, checkout, and payment mechanism running on a merchant’s server.

That should be all you need to know to get you started.

As you can see, the idea behind cloud computing is very powerful and useful beyond measure. Especially now when you actually know what it is.

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