A few things to know about Cloud Computing.

There's certainly been a lot of news and buzz about Cloud Computing.Introduction of Cloud Computing is a Revolutionary Event in the IT Industry. It represents the next big platform change in the software industry and the most significant transformation since the introduction of the Internet in the mid-1990's.  Not that it's a perfect solution, but because there are so many advantages to cloud computing and so many hassles to what people are currently doing today.

What is Cloud Computing?
Wikipedia describes Cloud Computing as – “Cloud computing is Internet-based computing, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices on demand, as with the electricity grid. Cloud computing is a natural evolution of the widespread adoption of virtualization, Service-oriented architecture and utility computing. Details are abstracted from consumers, who no longer have need for expertise in, or control over, the technology infrastructure "in the cloud" that supports them.”

So we can say, Cloud computing is a technology that uses the internet and central remote servers to maintain data and applications. Cloud computing allows consumers and businesses to use applications without installation and access their personal files at any computer with internet access. This technology allows for much more efficient computing by centralizing storage, memory, processing and bandwidth.

A simple example of cloud computing is Yahoo email or Gmail etc. You don’t need a software or a server to use them. All a consumer would need is just an internet connection and you can start sending emails. The server and email management software is all on the cloud ( internet) and is totally managed by the cloud service provider Yahoo , Google etc. The consumer gets to use the software alone and enjoy the benefits. The analogy is , 'If you only need milk , would you buy a cow ?' All the users or consumers need is to get the benefits of using the software or hardware of the computer like sending emails etc. Just to get this benefit (milk) why should a consumer buy a (cow) software /hardware ?
 

Why do we need Cloud Computing?
Cloud computing comes into focus only when you think about what IT always needs: a way to increase capacity or add capabilities on the fly without investing in new infrastructure, training new personnel, or licensing new software. Cloud computing encompasses any subscription-based or pay-per-use service that, in real time over the Internet, extends IT's existing capabilities.

For information workers who create relatively small but important applications to improve productivity, cloud computing promises to offer a whole new way to deliver robust solutions with enterprise quality infrastructure. Most people and groups have never had the ability to use such resources at any price, but cloud computing offers it at a very economical cost. For example, you'll be able to create a Microsoft Access application with the queries, forms, and reports that you like and link your Microsoft Access database to data stored in SQL Azure on the cloud. Your database can be distributed to others who can link to the shared database in the cloud. Of course it's a bit more complicated than that but it's an option that didn't exist so easily before and will surely open up whole new solutions.

 

 

How Cloud Computing Differs from Hosting an Application at an Internet Service Provider (ISP)?

There are many definitions of cloud computing and some people think it's simply having a shared or dedicated machine at an ISP. Granted that machine is hosted in a data centre that's more secure with backup power and high-speed internet connections. And it's certainly better than a box sitting in the network room down the hall, but that's not what we think about when we discuss cloud computing. That's just an off-site hosting of your computer.

In cloud computing, the application resides on multiple machines automatically. This provides superior reliability and fault-tolerance compared to hosting in one server. It's designed to automatically adjust its resources as demand increases or decreases whether it's computing power, bandwidth or storage. Cloud providers also take advantage of edge networks to store/cache data closer to recipients to reduce congestion centrally. These are truly enterprise and multi-national features that are nearly impossible to replicate on your own or with local ISP hosting companies.

 

What are the benefits of Cloud Computing?

Organizations are wrestling with the implications of cloud computing, how it can be used, costs, scalability, security, control, etc. The immediate advantages are huge. Why purchase hardware and software licenses, find a place to store the machine, hook it up, monitor it, and maintain it over time? All ways to minimize those costs, hassles, downtime, and headaches are definitely worth considering. Being able to add capacity on demand, support large numbers of users, and only paying for usage is very appealing. After all, to build a robust system today means satisfying the highest potential load (plus a safety factor), which means the system is under-utilized most of the time.

With cloud computing, there's very nice support for creating a staging or testing instance versus your production build. Being able to test new versions and automatically switch to production mode is very valuable and appealing since minimizing downtime can save considerable money. That said, situations requiring structural changes to the SQL Server database, requires scripting those SQL changes which will require temporarily disabling the application for those changes.

 

What are the issues concerning Cloud Computing?

On the flip side, organizations are extremely worried about security when it comes to cloud computing. With the application and data in an unknown location or multiple locations, managed by unknown people, these concerns are definitely valid. For critical, sensitive data, we completely understand the need to control it internally. However, for most organizations, there are plenty of applications and needs that don't require such security where productivity, time to market, and decision making are the bottleneck. Cloud computing may offer solutions at a fraction of the time and effort versus alternatives.

 

 

Commoditizing Application Hosting:

Cloud computing will significantly change the way we create and deploy applications. It promises to commoditize the hardware, software, and storage of applications and data. Just like the early days of the light bulb required you to host your own power generators, today's standard process of buying, configuring, and hosting machines locally will likely be the exception rather than the rule. Cloud computing will convert application hosting into a utility like electricity or water.

I have no idea where my electricity or water comes from or how it's produced, it’s just always available at the switch of a button or faucet. I'm happy it's there when I want it, there seems to be an endless supply, and I am willing to pay for all that I use. It's something I really don't think about.

That's what I expect Cloud Computing will do for software hosting. Applications and data will reside in the cloud in multiple simultaneous, fault tolerant, and secure locations that will scale with demand. The utility companies, in this case Microsoft, Amazon, and Google, etc., will provide the services in a much more cost effective and reliable manner than any non-specialized organization can provide on their own.

 

 

What does a Shift Towards Cloud Computing Mean?

A paradigm shift to cloud computing will affect many different sub-categories in computer industry such as software companies, internet service providers and hardware manufacturers. While it is relatively easy to see how the main software and internet companies will be affected by such a shift, it is more difficult to predict how companies in the internet and hardware sectors will be affected.

 

 

Conclusions:

While there may be some limitations and cost issues around Cloud Computing, it's a revolutionary platform that will simply become more and more significant over time. The advantages are simply too significant and the trend is for lower costs and more features over time.

For the information worker who has always had limited options when it comes to robust, enterprise quality platforms, cloud computing opens a whole new opportunity to build better applications. For small organizations and entrepreneurs, cloud computing offers the ability to deliver enterprise quality solutions. By focusing on the application and less on the platform, we can expect many innovative solutions to appear on the cloud at very competitive prices.