Sod3 Group Newscast : Cloud Computing
Cloud Computing
Published October 2011
In the Cloud?
Cloud Computing is hot these days, with nearly every enterprise vendor using the term. So what exactly is cloud computing and why are so many businesses embracing it? At its simplest, cloud computing means that users are connecting to applications that run on a set of shared or servers, rather than running on a single dedicated server. This is a subtle but important change from the client-server computing that has dominated IT for the past 20 years, where each application was "assigned" to a particular piece of hardware in a data center. If that hardware was down, the user either had to connect to a backup (which had to be standing by and ready) or would suffer an interruption in service. In the earliest instances, these shared resources were physically located away from the company's premises, and users would connect to them over the public Internet.So the "cloud" in cloud computing was the Internet, which is often represented with a physical cloud on software design and networking charts. But in the last two or three years, vendors like Microsoft and IBM have been pushing the idea of
"private clouds." These are sets of servers run by large companies or government agencies for the exclusive use of their employees, who usually connect to them over a private area network. So although it sounds like something relatively new,cloud computing has not only gotten the time to settle and improve in the past,but is also changin quite radically as we speak.It is that change,the potential for so much better computer services that is so interesting about cloud computing.
Geek stuff or real everyday computing? There’s a good chance you you’ve already used some cloud computing.If you have an e-mail account with a Webbased email service like hotmail, gmail, yahoo or ever used services such as google docs, then you’ve had some experience with the cloud.As opposed to having an email or typewriting software on your home/work pc,you log into and access your account remotely on the service’s computer cloud.
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Sod3 Group Newscast : Cloud Computing
In depth Companies like Apple and Microsoft offer products that either directly involve cloud computing services or rely on them in some way. Amazon, the online retail giant, has a thriving cloud storage business. To tell you the truth,if you are a young entrepreneur or managing projects or human resources,if you have to manage multiple customers or handle client queries in an organized manner,chances are you are already using cloud computing or will in the next year. Question is where will you encounter these clouds? The 3 main places you’ll encounter Cloud Computing Software as a Service(SaaS) The first type of cloud services is made of end-user applications, like productivity or business management software, that run on a set of pooled hardware resources and are accessed over a network. Pioneers here include Salesforce.com's CRM and business management services and Google Apps, as well as startups like Zoho, but other companies have recently gotten into the act -- particularly Microsoft, with its Office 365 services,making you able to access your ofice files and work/edit/share them from anywhere with just an internet connection and passowrd for a silly price as compared to usual siftware cost. SaaS is usually contrasted with products like Microsoft Office, which run on a user's PC.
Platform as a service Some service providers also offer a set of application "components" which developers can put together into applications -- a bit like building with Legos. Examples here include Salesforce.com's Force.com platform and Microsoft's Windows Azure platform. This is a very technical aspect of the cloud but the most interesting so far.A bit like API’s changed the programming world, PaaS is expected to change quite a bit in current software development practices.
Infrastructure as a service Sometimes called "utility computing," in this case a developer builds an application from scratch -- no building blocks are provided. But when it comes time to run the app, they run it in a virtual machine (software that imitates a dedicated server) rather than on a dedicated physical machine. That means that as more users need the application, the provider can quickly easily serve them by spinning up new virtual machines. Amazon Web Services, Rackspace, and Xerox (through Affiliated Computer Services) are among the players who offer this kind of cloud computing. http://www.sod3.info
Sod3 Group Newscast : Cloud Computing
A word from Janet Well when we decided this month to write a little IT newscast about cloud computing,i instantly got very excited.I mean, the main goal was,like a lot of internal assignments we have,just to get the team to gather up as much knowledge as possible on the one topic,but for this one,not only did we have to publish it public, but as a topic,Cloud Computing?wow,it was like a little boy being told to write about Messi(or whoever rocks nowadays).But really,as a software programmer,this means a lot more to us than just the fancy server talks.Cloud computing is,and that is my own opinion,the future of software development.It allows us to provide better,more adequate services almost tailor made to the needs of clients,and even from our side represents a much more convenient model to develop for.But i am also a business major,and i wanted to present here the other set of benefits,non technical this time of cloud computing.So here are just a few benefits you might want to look at,if you are one with serious business and want to take advantage of Information Technology.
Benefits of Cloud Computing Efficiency(lower hardware and IT costs). Instead of companies filling their own data centers with servers that need to be powered, cooled, and managed by IT staffers, companies effectively outsource their hardware needs to providers who already run huge data centers and know how to configure them for maximum efficiency, like Microsoft, Amazon, and Rackspace. Agility & Scalability(add capacity fast) Five years ago, if a Web startup got featured on CNN, the resulting traffic load would almost certainly crash its servers. But today, a company can simply buy more capacity from a cloud computing provider. But agility is also important for bigger companies. For instance, a certain accounting application might get particularly heavy usage around tax time. Before cloud computing, companies would have to devote hardware to this app, and have it sit idle through most of the year. Now, they can simply add and remove resources at will. Flexibility: (pay for what you need)Most SaaS services are billed per user per month, and platform and infrastructure services are billed based on the capacity actually being used. Remember how complicated it was to choose a website host before? ”Will i really use this much storage?” “Why subscribe to an option with 20 emails when you only need 2?” and a lot more questions of the sort will become less and less usual i guess with the spreading of cloud computing services.
About this Newscast
Sod3 Group : IT & Media The Sod3 Group is an IT & Media collaborate of recent graduates and senior university students all striving to world class professional expertise.We are students from South Africa,France,Cameroon,Egypt,Kenya,Mauritius,Australia and India.Our specialities are Software Development,Web Development,Graphic Development,Multimedia Production and Photography.We ought to be the best there is in the African and future international market in those fields.To find out more on Sod3 Group or to have a look at some of our work, You can Visit: http:// sod3.info
Want to know more about Cloud Computing? To find out more on cloud computing,you can have a look at our references for this article on http://sod3.info/articles/cloudcomputing and please do contact Janet.Green@sod3.info if you’d like to discuss or getting any extra information or any other IT & Media related topic.We are very passionate about what we do,and it would really be our pleasure to help and answer your questions. http://www.sod3.info