The ‘Aabra Ka Daabra’ Factor of the Modern Organization: Cloud Computing Explained

The lord said, “So be it” and so it was. From the skies afar, flew the angels, taking the message of their lord to the Sun to sputter the universe. Life came into existence and the atmosphere became the shield. Like curtains in a house, clouds became an embellishment of the skies. People, mystified and awed, observed and prayed to these clouds. Little did they know that a few million years later, these clouds would inspire technocrats to design the biggest revolution of their time – Cloud Computing.

Cloud Computing Explained: What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing is of as much interest and importance to the modern organization as the clouds were to the Neolithic man. But what is cloud computing and how does it get its name?

Cloud computing has marked a paradigm shift in computing. It gets its name from the cloud image that is used to represent the Internet or large networked environments. We send data to this cloud and receive data from it. Cloud computing is now about a larger base… rather than data pipes, routers and servers, there are now services, with higher service capabilities. A user can enjoy access to the cloud without bothering about how the cloud works or what technologies are used. An application can be built using resources from various services, from different locations.

Technically, cloud computing is an arrangement of computers with remote accessibility that lets users benefit from various computing processes on a service-per-demand basis or other arrangements. In simpler terms, it is like using someone else’s computer grid on a pay-as-you-go basis, thus avoiding the initial investment.

The structure is so flexible and accommodating that various offshoot revenue models have come up and each organization, as per its requirements, can deploy the power of cloud computing and save overheads.

Cloud Computing Explained: Tripod of Cloud Computing

Had it not been for cloud computing, the number of internet business success stories would have been much lower. Cloud computing bestowed power as well as cost optimization that the latest customer dominated atmosphere needed. It negated the need for huge IT operational expenditure and enabled SMEs to focus more on the research and development of their products/services than worry about technology procurement.

Cloud computing started mainly for netizens in the form of email clients, but soon companies realized the potential. Cloud computing responded too and today it is a multilayered service that assists right from software to mainframe infrastructure. All this is offered at a fraction of the erstwhile computing costs.

The three legs of cloud computing or the three ways one can deploy cloud computing are:

  • Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): This includes getting on-demand access to server capacity, network connection and storage space with flexibility to increase or decrease.
  • Platform as a Service (PaaS): This includes access to a set of computer components that aid in the creation of end user applications. These components are generally exposed as web services.
  • Software as a Service (SaaS): Rather than buying the licenses and upgrading the hardware to run high end applications in-house, one can use cloud computing to run the applications.

The cost advantages offered by cloud computing has persuaded even big IT giants such as Cisco to think of deploying the power of clouds and save expenses while gaining more computing power.

Here’s hoping that the power of the cloud brings you thundering success!

 

The author, Hammad Khan, is a member of the web content writing team with Veda Informatics.