There has been a lot of talk recently about a somewhat new form of technology known as “cloud computing.” The trouble is. You may have heard someone say that cloud computing is the future of computer technology, or that soon enough we will no longer be using localized software. While a lot of talk is going through the air, the trouble is that most people are still in the dark regarding what cloud computing is and how it works. This is a shame, as the concept is actually very easy to explain if understood correctly.
To start, let’s provide a background of what cloud computing is intended to fix. Ever since computers started taking over the business world, localized applications, servers and databases have provided mixed blessings. Many companies rely on localized software to run their business, and some of them do it very well, as they employ an IT department that knows what they are doing. The trouble is, localized software can be extremely cumbersome for people who are not exactly technological wizards, and could even result in the downfall of a business. For instance, if something goes wrong and no one knows how to fix it, what do you do?
This is where cloud computing comes into play. The basic tenet of cloud computing is that the responsibility of maintaining the software, database etc is no longer in the hands of the user or business owner, but is relegated to a third-party. Take e-mail services for example. Many businesses feel as if they have to run their own e-mail service in-house. While this is certainly possible and can be pulled off if there are professionals around to make sure that things run smoothly, the issue lays in the fact that many times these systems fall apart and no one around has the ability to fix them. Cloud computing sets out to fix this issue by eradicating the responsibility of the business owner. For instance, instead of maintaining your own email service, you would outsource it to a global service such as Gmail.
To put this into an even easier to understand perspective, consider online merchants. Say you run a business and would like to sell your wares online. While you could certainly set up your own online store, you may not know how to do so or you at least not feel very confident about it. The solution to this problem would be to sell your goods through a third-party merchant such as Amazon.com.
The wonderful thing about these third-party companies is that part of their role in the grand scheme of things is to maintain and update the services they provide, thus relieving the business owner of any headaches that might be associated with such work. Amazingly. this can all be done for much less money than it would cost to provide such a service in house. Because there are so many different “tenants” that subscribe to these services, subscription fees can be kept incredibly low for a product that would cost a fortune to develop in-house.
Truth be told, cloud computing is the future of the Internet, as everyone involved wins in the end. Companies that provide cloud computing services are able to offer people jobs because they are so busy, and they inevitably make a decent amount of money from all of their subscribers. Meanwhile, the subscribers – aka business owners – save a fortune because they no longer have to spend money on in-house development for software that they would need to implement in order to run their business. This gives them the ability to provide more jobs and higher wages to their employees.
As technology advances, so will the concept of cloud computing. There is no doubt that this model will continue to grow exponentially in the future, which can only be viewed as a good thing for everyone that is involved.
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