Clearing Up The Forms Of Cloud Computing
Cloud computing is basically any function, service or product that is accessible over the Internet that does not require a presence at the end user’s computer. Whether this involves something like hardware placement or installed software doesn’t matter, in most instances. The obvious positive benefit of this is how little burden it places on the user’s machine; even the most high-end, hardware-intensive functions are handled by the provider’s machine, rather than that of the user. This means that even a basic computer setup will be able to handle these without too much trouble.
One of the most prominent subsets of this is known as “software as a service.” A common form of this would be web-based e-mail accounts, which do not require the user to install any sort of software or store any of the information on their computers. Instead, all they need is to input a username and password to access the account and files stored on a remote server provided by the company, giving them the convenience of being able to access their e-mail from anywhere that has an Internet connection. As technology continues to develop, more and more of these are starting to emerge and are becoming more complex and functional – the photo editing features on Photobucket are an example.
Infrastructure as a service is also gaining ground among cloud computing firms. The idea behind this is that the hardware and the power these provide can be used as a service in and of themselves, rather than simply as a platform. An example of this would be firms that allow companies to rent out storage and server space at a rate that is based on how much is used at any given time. This is much cheaper than traditional hosting deals, where the customer pays for the space and bandwidth, even if the site itself never fully uses all of it. Naturally, it is possible to pay for more to expand the amount of space being used as necessary.
- Posted in: Considerations