Cloud computing is very much in vogue at the moment. Just about everywhere you look regarding hosting and web services there will be a mention of cloud computing. In fact it is a service that I am hoping to roll out myself over the next few months. I am in contact with a number of companies to bring cloud based services such as hosting and back up to my clients. You may be wondering what cloud computing is and what all the fuss is about. If you are the video at the end of this little piece should help you to understand it.
In a nutshell cloud computing is a way of providing IT services such as software over the Internet. An example might be a Customer Relationship Management system. Traditionally this would have to sit on a machine within your premises and would need to be maintained by your own staff. This is fine but what if you need to upgrade the software? What if there is a fire at your premises and the machine, along with all the data stored on it, is destroyed? With cloud computing this is all managed for you. Granted you are sharing the software with other organisations but is that so big a problem? Who cleans your premises at the moment, do you employ full time cleaners yourself or do you outsource the work to a specialist cleaning company? Your website is almost certainly hosted by a third party company in one of their purpose built data centres. You may not realise it but this is a form of cloud computing. You do not worry about where the servers are located as long as your website is live and secure then that is probably all you care about.
Cloud computing means that somebody else takes care of building the required architecture and providing the software that you will use. It also means that you can rapidly upgrade your systems and that they are very scalable, which can be very useful if you suddenly become very successful.
The video explains all of this in a very concise way, and is good to watch. I hope that it both educates and entertains in equal measures
If you are using Cloud Computing in your business why not share with others what your experiences of it are?