Cloud Computing made simple

We often times hear about businesses going on the cloud. What does it mean? Lot is being talked about SMAC - Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud. Undoubtedly, a lot is happening around these four buzzwords. In this post, I will very succinctly touch upon what cloud computing is.
To begin with let's understand what is the "Cloud" in "Cloud computing" all about? Cloud refers to a collection of interconnected computers (servers/super computers) that host softwares, operating systems, etc.

Cloud Computing is the ability to use the power of these computers (located somewhere else) and their software, via the Internet (or sometimes other networks), without the need to own them. They are being provided to you, as a service.
Think of the cloud as a power grid. You can get all of the resources, software and information you need, when you need it - just like the electricity in your home.
You pay for as much you utilize the resources. All the resources are available as a service to you.


Cloud computing comes in 3 flavors:


1) Software as a service

Softwares are hosted on servers which you can access via the Internet. You don't own the software meaning you don't have to install it on your computer to be able to use it. You just hook up to the internet and access the software through the web. This saves your storage space. Additionally, you don't have to bother about installing those pesky software upgrades that pop up periodically whenever there is one available by its manufacturer. All you do is pay as you use the software.
Eg. Google Apps, Salesforce and Zoho

2) Infrastructure as a service

You buy computing hardware to use over the net, usually servers, or online storage. You buy what you need and pay-as-you-go. A basic example of this is a web hosting for your website. You pay monthly fee to a hosting company for the storage on their servers and to have them serve up files for your website from those servers. E.g. Dropbox

3) Platform as a service

Platforms are softwares used for developing, designing and testing other softwares. You pay to design, develop and test applications using platforms that are hosted on the cloud. This rids you off the headache of having proper machine configuration for each type of platform you use. 

Eg. Java - a programming language requires a particular machine configuration, whereas, Python requires yet another configuration.  

Here is a video to know more about Cloud computing.