Privacy, Security & Virus Information

What is Cloud Computing?

There’s so much jargon floating around these days when it comes to technology – megapixels, gigabytes, interfacing, dongles – you make up a word, and somebody somewhere will already be using it to name part of a computer. The latest addition to the daunting dictionary of computers is ‘cloud’ technology. Chances are that it’s not referring to fluffy white computers, so what on earth could it refer to?

The first time I heard about cloud technology was in the form of the iCloud, Apple’s unique brand of cloud computing, and I just assumed that Apple, being the ingenious, confusing and magical entity that it is, had come up with cloud technology all on its own. This is not the case, however – cloud technology is a development within the whole of the Information Technology industry, and brands such as Apple and Microsoft are taking advantage of it.

Cloud technology is basically a new way of using the internet that is currently being targeted at large businesses. It utilises the endless space that is available on the internet and allows you to put programmes, applications, files and more into your “cloud”, taking them off your server or computer itself. This is beneficial for a lot of reasons.

Firstly, by taking applications, files and programmes off your computer or server, you’re freeing up space on the technology owned by a business and putting onto the vast space of the Internet. This means that the computer and server space a business is paying for can be occupied with stuff that the business wants it to be occupied with, rather than stuff that needs to be there.

In addition, putting documents, programmes and all the rest of it into a cloud, the people within the business can access that material from anywhere in the world (providing that they have internet connection, of course). This, in effect, ends the need for people go to the office to sit at a computer, because they can access the programme or file they need at home from their own computer.

Broadly speaking, there are two different types of clouds. A public cloud is a cloud provided by, for example, Amazon or Google, and is available to everyone with internet. A private cloud, however, is likely to be found within a big business or organisation, and only allows those who are part of the organisation to access the material inside the cloud.

 

Article by Connor Sephton, 26th September 2011.