Cloud Computing Simplified

Cloud computing is getting an extreme amount of attention because of its popularity, versatility and functionality. You may be surprised to know that not many people really understand the concept or how the process actually works. What many people aren't aware of is the fact that they use cloud computing in a lot of their everyday tasks. When people go online and access program sites like Yahoo-mail, Hotmail, and Gmail, they are working on a form of computing in a cloud. In this article you will learn the basics of cloud computing and how this type of computing is changing the way people interact online as well as in the business world in general. Cloud computing is extremely large, and it has been growing at a pretty quick pace since its inception. To understand more about this type of computing, it's important to understand its structure. There are three layers to cloud computing; infrastructure, platform, and application. Based on what they offer, different companies and organizations will use them in a different way. In order for a cloud to be structured properly, everything begins with infrastructure because this is where the hosting resides. In the old days of computing when a person created a website, many of them were hosted on dedicated servers. As these websites grew in popularity, these servers would become overloaded, your visitors would get angry because they weren't able to access information, and the need for bigger and better servers became apparent. This in turn would cost the website owner a considerable amount of money, and this money could be better spent on providing service and products for their customers rather than more expensive equipment. With cloud computing, instead of using a dedicated server you will host your website on a cloud. When you are working with a cloud, you eliminate the need for hardware because this is all provided for you within the cloud. As your website grows, you can add services. If your website starts to wind down a bit, you can release services back to the cloud. For a simple analogy, think of your electric company. They have really large equipment such as transformers and large turbines that help to generate power, but as a simple private person or business, you don't want to have this equipment in your home or business. Instead you pay for the services and plug into their cloud. You pay for what you use. If you need more, the service is available. As your need decreases, you are charged less for what you're consuming. A computing cloud works the same way. You no longer have to deal with any type of hardware for website or business needs. The only item you'll need for working with your cloud is a computer for accessing and controlling what your cloud is providing for others. Platforms can be changed to suit your needs and applications can be run right from the cloud. This provides more flexibility and functionality for your website or business needs. Cloud computing is providing a way for people to communicate and do business regardless of where they are and the type of hardware they possess.