Most people in the world have no idea what cloud computing is. The concept can be very hard to understand, but I will try to clear that up for you. Cloud computing is basically technology that will allow people to access to use certain applications on any computer. These applications will not have to be installed on a computer. As long as a computer has Internet access it will be able to use the application. This is very nice because you don’t have to be on a certain computer or place to do something. You could do something that needs to be done right away at home rather than having to head down to the work place.
There are many different kinds of cloud computing. The first kind that we will discuss is SaaS. This particular kind is a single application. This kind of computing is quite simple. Because there is only one application it is very easy for the company to maintain. This also means that the costs are much lower than a different kind with many different kinds of applications. For a customer there is no initial investment as far as servers or software licensing.
A second kind of cloud computing is utility computing. The popularity of cloud computing is on the rise. This kind of computing is generally used by companies for needs that are not so critical. This kind of computing is usually a supplemental kind of computing for a company. Amazon.com, Sun, and IBM are three companies that are really making this kind of computing very popular. Because the popularity is rising, utility computing may become more than just a supplemental kind of computing tool. It may become a central focus for a company’s computing needs.
A third, and the final kind of cloud computing being discussed, is Web services in the cloud. This kind of computing is very close to the kind of computing that is done with SaaS. In this kind of computing the Internet is exploited for its functionality. Applications are not really delivered with this kind of computing. Providers can offer things such as discrete business services, and other kinds of APIs that are offered by such systems such as Google Maps. This kind of computing can be used for a variety of purposes, and by a variety of companies.
