Cloud Computing

A term that is becoming more common is Cloud Computing, or The Cloud. Which to many users & techie’s alike means very little. Without knowing it, you almost definitely use cloud computing-based services everyday. Still, most people aren’t aware of just what cloud computing is. Trying to explain it with as few technical words as possible, Cloud Computing is thousands of computers connecting together with clever software and networking which provide services over the internet and the types of services that are on offer are growing as the technology advances.

If I gave you some examples of these services it might make more sense .. how about Gmail (Google’s email service) or Hotmail for that matter. The popular communications client Skype. Tools such as Syncplicity which allow you to syncronise data over the internet on multiple computers, Cloud backup services which allow you to back up your data to the web for safe keeping. These are all examples of Cloud Computing and this is becoming more and more common.

Why is it becoming more common? In my mind it is for two key reasons,

1) Cost – yes you have to pay for many of these services, but the cost of them is significantly less than what you have had to pay for old methods of doing the same thing. In the past a company might have installed a Microsoft Exchange Server costing a few thousand pounds, plus setup, plus maintenance and running costs. Now they could use a Cloud based email service like Gmail for £33 per year per user, plus setup but there are no running costs, no maintenance and you haven’t got to worry about hardware support.

2) Simple – Small companies and charities don’t always have the technical expertise to run and maintain server solutions onsite and can’t afford to bring people in, so they stick with what they have got, Cloud Computing resolves this problem and allows anyone to have professional Cloud based services.