Cloud Computing - Tricky Even For Experienced Computer Users
Cloud Computing is a term that is often
misunderstood and confused by both novice and experienced computer owners and users. Cloud
computing is essentially the internet based use of applications and resources in real
time.
The most effective way to
describe cloud computing is to think of an application that you might use through
Google Apps. You use the application via your web browser (it doesn’t matter which
browser you use for cloud computing) but the application itself is stored on Google’s
Servers, so you never have to download the actual application on to your own PC or Mac.
This saves the user valuable hard drive space and has the potential to dramatically
improve PC or Mac performance.
The aim of cloud computing
is to, in a sense, relieve the PC or Mac owner / operator from having to be burdened by
the expensive and exhaustive task of maintaining and managing their software applications
which can prove to be a drain on finances and equipment speed.
Cloud computing in that manner is actually
quite a simple concept, although it is often confused with other similar terms, including
grid computing and utility computing. They are described as follows:
¨ Grid computing involves a
cluster of loosely linked machines – where applications are distributed across a group
of linked machines meaning that the user may not necessarily have an application they are
using loaded on to their machine, but they may in fact be accessing it from another
machine,
¨ Utility computing packages
computer applications and farms them out to other PCs or Macs like an electricity provider
would farm out power on a grid of homes.
It is important to note that cloud
computing may or may not hold some or all of the characteristics of grid computing and
utility computing, which is why the three terms are so frequently confused.
Cloud computing takes its name from the image
that it portrays in network diagrams of being able to hover above and conceal complex
architecture that the user does not need to know about or interact with. Cloud computing
does this but still achieves the same functionality as if the application or device was
loaded on to, or attached to their system directly.
Cloud computing taps into high end server
infrastructure that is hosted and supported typically by the application’s developer.
This is important, because for many of these cloud computing type applications, the demand
is great and therefore, the back end needs to be durable and stable in order to cope with
the user demand.
In addition to the first
example we gave you of Google Apps, cloud computing functionality can also extend
to applications that run across peer to peer networks. Applications that do this include
BitTorrent and Skype. Open source software is also part of this cloud computing family and
this kind of application is a key driver in the concept of cloud computing,
becoming almost ubiquitous across the world.
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