What is cloud computing?

 I thought I should write up something to explain in laymen's terms exactly what it is.

Cloud computing is basically using your computer without any hardware or applications physically on the system.I heard a really good quote from vamshi krishna mokshagundam he said cloud computing is "The delivery of services rather than applications completely independent of physical hardware".

Basically everything you do on you computer will be accessed on line through a virtual server.

There are 3 types of cloud computing that you will be using:

1. SAAS : This allows you to run existing applications.Most of these are free applications or you can pay a subscription fee to use them.The great thing is that you can use you applications on any computer that has access to the internet.A good example at the moment is NETFLIX,you can watch all these programs but you don't actually physically have them on your pc/tablet.ps3 or whatever device you stream to.

2. PAAS: Allows users to create their own applications.This allows you to create applications to run on the cloud, Google and Microsoft are two that I know will be doing this.I wont go into much detail on this as I dont feel it is very important in understanding the cloud.I will return to it at a later date.

3.IAAS: Allows users to run any application on any hardware of their own choice.No more need to update your memory or pc because all the hardware you need to run anything will be accessed on line.This means you computer will be able to run anything you want it to run,except a marathon lol ;/.

The cloud will be very productive for businesses.For a while now companies small and large have been paying for hosting on physical servers.Now the problem with this can be ,you get lots of traffic and you have to keep buying more servers to keep up with all the traffic.Now with the cloud you use the cloud as a virtual server and you can upgrade as often as you want,it either gives you resources that you need or gives back what you do not need to the cloud.
Here is an example: say your in a Taxi,the fair stops when the taxi stops and it runs when the taxi is running,It does not run all the time because it is not needed.

The key point you should take on this is that cloud computing is platform,software and infrastructure as a service.You only pay for what you use so forget them old servers/hardware and we will fly to the clouds.

Any comments.love to hear them :) Martin