YOU MAY have heard of the term, ‘cloud computing’ or ‘The Cloud,’ but, can you describe it? There are so many definitions flying around that you wouldn’t be alone if you struggled to define it. Cloud computing is simply a set of pooled computing resources and services delivered over the Web. When you diagram the relationships between all the elements, it resembles a cloud. Cloud computing—not to be confused with grid computing, utility computing, or autonomic computing—involves the interaction among several virtualized resources. Cloud Servers connect and share information, based on the level of website traffic across the entire network. Cloud computing is often provided “as a service” over the Internet, typically in the form of infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), or software as a service (SaaS).

Cloud computing customers don’t have to raise the capital to purchase, manage, maintain, or scale the physical infrastructure required to handle drastic traffic fluctuations. Instead of having to invest time and money to keep their sites afloat, cloud computing customers simply pay for the resources they use, as they use them. This particular characteristic of cloud computing—its elasticity—means that customers no longer need to predict traffic, but can promote their sites aggressively and spontaneously. Thus, engineering for peak traffic has become a thing of the past.

A cloud service has three distinct characteristics that differentiate it from traditional hosting. It is sold on demand, typically by the minute or the hour; it is elastic, meaning that a user can have as much or as little service as they want at any given time; and the service is fully managed by the provider (the consumer needs nothing but a personal computer and Internet access). Significant innovations in virtualization and distributed computing, as well as improved access to high-speed Internet and a weak economy, have all helped accelerate interest in cloud computing.
A cloud can be private or public. A public cloud sells services to anyone on the Internet. (Currently, Amazon Web Services is the largest public cloud provider.) A private cloud is a proprietary network or data centre that supplies hosted services to a limited number of people. When a service provider uses public cloud resources to create their private cloud, the result is called a virtual private cloud. Private or public, the goal of cloud computing is to provide easy, scalable access to computing resources and IT services.
Infrastructure-as-a-Service like Amazon Web Services provides virtual server to start, stop, access and configure their virtual servers and storage. In the enterprise, cloud computing allows a company to pay for only as much capacity as is needed, and bring more Online as soon as required. Because this pay-for-what-you-use model resembles the way electricity, fuel and water are consumed, it’s sometimes referred to as utility computing.
Platform-as-a-service in the cloud is defined as a set of software and product development tools hosted on the provider’s infrastructure. Developers create applications on the provider’s platform over the Internet. PaaS providers may use APIs, website portals or gateway software installed on the customer’s computer. Force.com, (an outgrowth of Salesforce.com) and Google Apps are examples of PaaS. Developers need to know that currently, there are no standards for interoperability or data portability in the cloud. Some providers will not allow software created by their customers to be moved off the provider’s platform.
In the software-as-a-service cloud model, the vendor supplies the hardware infrastructure, the software product, and interacts with the user through a front-end portal. SaaS is a very broad market. Services can be anything, from Web-based email to inventory control and database processing. Because the service provider hosts both the application and the data, the end-user is free to use the service from anywhere.
Cloud computing: Job killer or job creator?
Analysts agree that cloud computing is here to stay, but there is less consensus on what impact, if any, the enterprise’s rush towards third-party hosting will have on the job market. While some, such as Simon Wardley of the IT services firm, CSC, say the added efficiency of the cloud could pose a threat to the human workforce — comparing it to a high-tech form of outsourcing – recent data from IDC suggests cloud computing will create 14 million new jobs during the next three years.

Is Cloud Computing Secure?
The answer is a simple yes: It’s just as secure as standard computing and hosting. However, the media sometimes gives the impression that it isn’t. Often, you hear about major networks like Google suffering huge outages across their cloud network, which can send users into a panic about their information.
Because of the risks associated with cloud computing, many major providers take their security much more seriously. Their policies and physical security on site are often much tighter than traditional hosting platforms, with employees dedicated to actively monitoring how the network is performing, and taking action when an intrusion is detected
The future of data storage Online is most certainly cloud computing, as it provides instant access to data under a heavy load and redundant backups for when the inevitable failure should happen. The security measures that go into protecting this future will only become more stringent as time goes on, so there’s really nothing to worry about.