Cloud Computing is a general term used to refer to the delivery of resources and services on demand over the Internet . It refers to the storage and access to data through the internet rather than through a computer’s hard drive. It is thus opposed to the notion of local storage, consisting in storing data or launching programs from the hard disk.
As a general rule, we discuss Cloud Computing when it is feasible to get to information or projects from the Internet , or possibly when this information is synchronized with other information on the Internet. To access it, all you need to do is have an internet connection.
This innovation permits organizations to buy IT assets as an assistance , similar as power is burned-through, rather than building and keep up with IT framework in-house.
According to the US National Institute of Standards and Technology, Cloud Computing is a model for establishing on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources. These resources are for example networks, servers, storage space, applications and services. They can be provisioned quickly with minimal management effort and interaction with the service provider .
Advantages and disadvantages
This technology offers several advantages and benefits for business users and end users. The top three benefits are self-service provisioning, elasticity, and pay-as-you-go . Flexibility offers the chance to increment or decline the utilization of assets as indicated by the necessities of the business. Finally, pay-as-you-go allows firms to pay only for the resources consumed.
For many people, local storage used in recent decades remains superior to cloud computing today. These people believe that a hard drive helps keep data and programs physically close together , allowing quick and easy access for computer or local network users.
In 2013, former NASA roboticist Randall Monroe attempted to predict when internet bandwidth would surpass that of FedEx. For good reason, regardless of the speed of an Internet connection, it is still cheaper to send hundreds of gigabytes of data via FedEx planes and trucks than via the Internet. Upon reflection, his prediction is for the year 2040. Reading this conclusion, Cory Doctorow saw an implicit criticism of Cloud Computing from Monroe . As per him, the speed and cost of nearby stockpiling is lower than an organization association constrained by a broadcast communications organization.
Three advantages of cloud computing in business
Enterprise Cloud Computing is a special use case of Cloud Computing that enables businesses to gain competitive storage advantages to lower costs and accelerate innovation by improving collaboration with partners and customers . More specifically, Cloud Computing brings three major advantages to companies:
Benefit # 1
The server farm expenses and IT administrations can be diminished and set up relatively to utilize . Depending on the amount of use, the costs will be higher or lower due to the rapid elasticity.
Advantage # 2
Expenditure and risk-taking for innovation can be drastically reduced with cloud computing. So companies can take riskier bets and test new ideas more. The new projects can be supported directly if they take the scale, or abandoned if they fail . Scability and elasticity offer companies new possibilities to try out new business ideas and to develop them if they prove to be relevant.
Benefit # 3
Today, business esteem ties are comprised of around 20 organizations. However, collaboration is the key to obtaining competitive advantages within the value chain. By developing shared workspaces within Community Clouds, employees of multiple companies can work together within a virtual company network as if they were working for a single company . They all participate in the same value creation system, and share their communication, information and IT resources.