What is cloud computing

cloud computing?

What is the cloud? Where is the cloud? Are we in the cloud now? These are all questions you’ve probably heard or even asked yourself. The term “cloud computing” is everywhere.

In the simplest terms, cloud computing means storing and accessing data and programs over the Internet instead of your computer’s hard drive. The cloud is just a metaphor for the Internet. It goes back to the days of flowcharts and presentations that would represent the gigantic server-farm infrastructure of the Internet as nothing but a puffy, white cumulus cloud, accepting connections and doling out information as it floats.

What cloud computing is not about is your hard drive. When you store data on or run programs from the hard drive, that’s called local storage and computing. Everything you need is physically close to you, which means accessing your data is fast and easy, for that one computer, or others on the local network. Working off your hard drive is how the computer industry functioned for decades; some would argue it’s still superior to cloud computing, for reasons I’ll explain shortly.

The cloud is also not about having a dedicated network attached storage (NAS) hardware or server in residence. Storing data on a home or office network does not count as utilizing the cloud. (However, some NAS will let you remotely access things over the Internet, and there’s at least one brand from Western Digital named “My Cloud,”just to keep things confusing.)

For it to be considered “cloud computing,” you need to access your data or your programs over the Internet, or at the very least, have that data synced with other information over the Web. In a big business, you may know all there is to know about what’s on the other side of the connection; as an individual user, you may never have any idea what kind of massive data processing is happening on the other end. The end result is the same: with an online connection, cloud computing can be done anywhere, anytime.

What cloud computing really means

The cloud computing trend sounds nebulous, but it’s not so fuzzy when you view the value proposition from the perspective of IT professionals.

Cloud computing is all the rage. “It’s become the phrase du jour,” says Gartner senior analyst Ben Pring, echoing many of his peers. The problem is that (as with Web 2.0) everyone seems to have a different definition.

As a metaphor for the Internet, “the cloud” is a familiar cliché, but when combined with “computing,” the meaning gets bigger and fuzzier. Some analysts and vendors define cloud computing narrowly as an updated version of utility computing: basically virtual servers available over the Internet. Others go very broad, arguing anything you consume outside the firewall is “in the cloud,” including conventional outsourcing.

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.

Cloud computing is at an early stage, with a motley crew of providers large and small delivering a slew of cloud-based services, from full-blown applications to storage services to spam filtering. Yes, utility-style infrastructure providers are part of the mix, but so are SaaS (software as a service) providers such as Salesforce.com. Today, for the most part, IT must plug into cloud-based services individually, but cloud computing aggregators and integrators are already emerging.

How Cloud Computing Works

Let’s say you’re an executive at a large corporation. Your particular responsibilities include making sure that all of your employees have the right hardware and software they need to do their jobs. Buying computers for everyone isn’t enough — you also have to purchase software or software licenses to give employees the tools they require. Whenever you have a new hire, you have to buy more software or make sure your current software license allows another user. It’s so stressful that you find it difficult to go to sleep on your huge pile of money every night.

Soon, there may be an alternative for executives like you. Instead of installing a suite of software for each computer, you’d only have to load one application. That application would allow workers to log into a Web-based service which hosts all the programs the user would need for his or her job. Remote machines owned by another company would run everything from e-mail to word processing to complex data analysis programs. It’s called cloud computing, and it could change the entire computer industry.

In a cloud computing system, there’s a significant workload shift. Local computers no longer have to do all the heavy lifting when it comes to running applications. The network of computers that make up the cloud handles them instead. Hardware and software demands on the user’s side decrease. The only thing the user’s computer needs to be able to run is the cloud computing system’s interface software, which can be as simple as a Web browser, and the cloud’s network takes care of the rest.

There’s a good chance you’ve already used some form of cloud computing. If you have an e-mail account with a Web-based e-mail service like Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail or Gmail, then you’ve had some experience with cloud computing. Instead of running an e-mail program on your computer, you log in to a Web e-mail account remotely. The software and storage for your account doesn’t exist on your computer — it’s on the service’s computer cloud.

Software as a service (SaaS)

Cloud-based applications—or software as a service—run on distant computers “in the cloud” that are owned and operated by others and that connect to users’ computers via the Internet and, usually, a web browser.

The benefits of SaaS

• You can sign up and rapidly start using innovative business apps
• Apps and data are accessible from any connected computer
• No data is lost if your computer breaks, as data is in the cloud
• The service is able to dynamically scale to usage needs

Platform as a service (PaaS)

Platform as a service provides a cloud-based environment with everything required to support the complete lifecycle of building and delivering web-based (cloud) applications—without the cost and complexity of buying and managing the underlying hardware, software, provisioning, and hosting.

The benefits of PaaS

• Develop applications and get to market faster
• Deploy new web applications to the cloud in minutes
• Reduce complexity with middleware as a service

Infrastructure as a service (IaaS)

Infrastructure as a service provides companies with computing resources including servers, networking, storage, and data center space on a pay-per-use basis.

The benefits of IaaS

• No need to invest in your own hardware
• Infrastructure scales on demand to support dynamic workloads
• Flexible, innovative services available on demand

Public cloud

Public clouds are owned and operated by companies that offer rapid access over a public network to affordable computing resources. With public cloud services, users don’t need to purchase hardware, software, or supporting infrastructure, which is owned and managed by providers.

Key aspects of public cloud

• Innovative SaaS business apps for applications ranging from customer resource management (CRM) to transaction management and data analytics
• Flexible, scalable IaaS for storage and compute services on a moment’s notice
• Powerful PaaS for cloud-based application development and deployment environments

Private cloud

A private cloud is infrastructure operated solely for a single organization, whether managed internally or by a third party, and hosted either internally or externally. Private clouds can take advantage of cloud’s efficiencies, while providing more control of resources and steering clear of multi-tenancy.

Key aspects of private cloud

• A self-service interface controls services, allowing IT staff to quickly provision, allocate, and deliver on-demand IT resources
• Highly automated management of resource pools for everything from compute capability to storage, analytics, and middleware
• Sophisticated security and governance designed for a company’s specific requirements

Hybrid cloud

A hybrid cloud uses a private cloud foundation combined with the strategic integration and use of public cloud services. The reality is a private cloud can’t exist in isolation from the rest of a company’s IT resources and the public cloud. Most companies with private clouds will evolve to manage workloads across data centers, private clouds, and public clouds—thereby creating hybrid clouds.

Key aspects of hybrid cloud

• Allows companies to keep the critical applications and sensitive data in a traditional data center environment or private cloud
• Enables taking advantage of public cloud resources like SaaS, for the latest applications, and IaaS, for elastic virtual resources
• Facilitates portability of data, apps and services and more choices for deployment models