Cloud Computing
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Imagine if personal or work data could be accessed remotely as easily as it is when you are at home on your own computer. Imagine if you had more computing power whenever you needed it but not when you didn't. These abilities and more are the promise of cloud computing. Take advantage of the many growing cloud computing companies by hosting data and services remotely in the cloud. You can save yourself time, money and stress while quickly and easily accessing the data or processing power that you need.
The infrastructure behind cloud computing has actually been developing for many years. In diagrams of networks the larger network structure - such as the Internet - is often represented by a cloud. This suggests that data goes up into the cloud and rains down at the appropriate location without the user having awareness of where and how the data traveled. Modern cloud computing still utilizes the idea of the Internet as a cloud floating in the ether. Now however the cloud is also responsible for bearing much of the processing and storage which was once the realm of the desktop. Many large online companies have developed extremely complex and powerful data centers which they use to run their large websites. Some of these companies - such as Amazon or Google - have expanded their data centers and offer scalable storage and processing at a reasonable fee. Many different companies use this framework to run their website or other aspect of IT infrastructure without the headache of maintaining their own hardware systems. The ability to use unlimited scalable computing power with a fee based on usage has has led to thinking of cloud computing as a utility-type cost for a company. This lets companies and consumers focus on the applications they are developing without becoming bound up in hardware management. In most cases the services offered through cloud computing endeavors are accessed through a web browser. This is an amazing leap forward technologically because applications or data can now be accessed from any device which is Internet capable. Anything that can be done on a home computer can now be done remotely over the Internet via cloud servers. Many different websites build their technology around using cloud servers to run their web based applications. All user generated data from a site such as ZooFoo is uploaded to a cloud server where it can be accessed from anywhere in the world. ZooFoo uses Amazon's AWS system. Because cloud computing is such a new force in the world of IT and the Internet it inevitably comes with a new set of services to offer. Here are few of these new service types: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): In the past, when a company wanted a complex application hosted on a powerful server would have to develop the app and then purchase and build the server. The development and maintenance for the infrastructure that ran the application was the responsibility of the company developing the app. By offering scalable processing, storage space and virtual machines cloud computing providers can offer and charge for a digital infrastructure as if it were a traditional service or utility. Platform as a Service (PaaS): Similarly, not only can the electronic infrastructure be offered as a service many development platforms are now being offered hosted in cloud data centers. In this way companies can immediately start developing their software without the cost of developing or purchasing a platform. A prime example of this is Google Apps.
Cloud computing is the future of computing. More and more companies and users will begin to shift to the cloud computing model as old systems of data management become obsolete or inefficient. It takes the hassle of maintaining a complex hardware infrastructure away from the user while allowing the computer to become the ultimate tool of creative productivity.
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