Cloud Computing

I was on Facebook (as if a news lol) last night chatting to a friend - a high school friend that is. She got her new lappy (laptop) and therefore she needs to install some of the most used applications, one of those was the MS Office of which the main tool for her job as she needs revision on her presentations every now and then. She’s having trouble downloading the app using the Smart Bro pre-paid broadband, so I suggested her why not use the Office app on the Internet since she already had her Google account.
It’s hassle free and ubiquitous; I mean she only needs her laptop and an Internet connection. She responded, “What if, I don’t have the load”, referring to her pre-paid broadband. Then I said, “Now, that’s the big problem” lol.

I was trying to introduce her, the idea of Cloud Computing. As it slowly starting to be the top computing trends being embraced by big companies as Internet becoming the new medium for a successful business.

And what is a cloud computing? Are you lost yet? Now, let’s see, if I can help you understand its concept.

The name cloud computing was inspired by the cloud symbol that is often used to represent the Internet in a flow charts and diagrams. Generally speaking, anything that involves delivering hosted services over the Internet. It is a way of computing via the Internet that broadly shares computer resources instead of using a software or storage on your local computer. It provides the abstraction between the computing resource and its underlying technical architecture such as the server, storage and networks with the convenience to access, on-demand network to a shared pool of configurable computing resources that can rapidly provisioned and releases with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.

These services are divided into three categories: ¹Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS). Amazon Web Services is one good example; it provides virtual server instances with unique IP addresses and blocks of storage on demand. Customers use the provider’s API to start, stop, access and configure their virtual servers and storage. And because this model, the pay-for-what-you-use resembles the way electricity, fuel and water are consumed; it’s sometimes referred to as utility computing.

While ²Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), is defined as a set of software and product development tools hosted on the provider’s infrastructure. Developers create applications on the provider’s platform over the Internet. Providers may use APIs, website portals or gateway software installed on the customer’s computer. Force.com and GoogleApps are examples of PaaS.

And lastly, the ³Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), in this cloud model the vendor supplies the hardware infrastructure, the software product and interacts with the user through a front-end portal. SaaS is a very broad market. Services can be anything from web based email to inventory control and database processing. Because the service provider hosts both the application and the data, the end user is free to use the service from anywhere.

To simplify cloud computing please watch this video, welcome to the cloud… 9.


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