Cloud computing is not a passing fad. It’s here to stay. And if you haven’t caught the wave yet, now is the time to educate yourself on the benefits and features of great clouds.
So what is a cloud? In its essence, a cloud is a nebulous form. The Internet itself has been described as a cloud because anyone can access it and run a business, publish information, provide resources, or communicate with others en masse through a network of computers over which they have no control. No one owns the cloud; it just is.
There are services, however, that do provide cloud computing on a fee basis. The cloud can exist in one of various forms. But the customer of the cloud pays for services as he needs them and doesn’t pay for what isn’t used. Cloud computing can generally be serviced in one of the following formats:
- Infrastructure as service
- Platform as service
- Software as service
To further complicate the issue, cloud computing systems can exist as public resources, private resources, or a hybrid of the two.
Cloud computing is a dynamic form of hosting where services provided are disjointed and allows companies to store data in a variety of environments, including across geographical boundaries and cross-culturally. The benefits are enormous and there is a lot to gain from this powerful, dynamic mode of computing in the 21st century.