Cloud Computing

The “cloud” has become a household name in the past couple of years, but what does it actually mean and what can it do for your business and home?

According to info-world.com: “Cloud computing encompasses any subscription-based or pay-per-use service that, in real time over the Internet, extends IT’s existing capabilities… Cloud computing is at an early stage, with a motley crew of providers large and small delivering a slew of cloud-based services, from full-blown applications to storage services to spam filtering.”

Howstuffworks.com describes what cloud computing does:
“In a cloud computing system, there’s a significant workload shift. Local computers no longer have to do all the heavy lifting when it comes to running applications. The network of computers that make up the cloud handles them instead. Hardware and software demands on the user’s side decrease. The only thing the user’s computer needs to be able to run is the cloud computing system’s interface software, which can be as simple as a Web browser, and the cloud’s network takes care of the rest.”

An everyday example of cloud computing, that most people have encountered, can be found within web-based email accounts like, gmail, hotmail and yahoo. Your own computer only needs a browser like Internet Explorer to connect to the remote server that stores all your emails. The remote server in this case is the cloud.

The cloud is a broad term and its uses stretch far beyond webmail. Cloud services offer users such things as file storage (e.g. Apple iCloud, dropbox), spam filtering (e.g. Symantec, Mcafee) and faster website performance (e.g. Cloudflare).

So what are the benefits of cloud computing?

Want to know more about cloud computing? Get in touch with us and see how it can be of benefit to your home and your business.