What is it?

Cloud computing, at present, is a nebulous term being used in various ways by different people. There’s no formal agreed-upon definition for it. At its most basic level, the term refers to moving a function that would normally be carried out on a local system, such as a consumer’s laptop or fileserver, to a system that is maintained at a service provider’s data centers. For the consumer, it is like having a virtual server.

The more formal description for cloud computing includes the stipulation that the process feature a distributed mechanism, a layer of abstraction, for the provider to control the system without having to manage each of its components. For example, Go Daddy, which rents website space, and RackSpace, which rents servers, have abstracted the complexity of their infrastructure to the extent that it’s unlikely that even their own staff will ever handle the assignment of a resource to a particular customer. They handle the administrative functions of hosting, while all of the technological processes are being carried out in large data centers filled floor-to-ceiling with dedicated machines. One of these machines will automatically host the server that is needed to process the requirements of the end-user, and that server may have the ability to host 10 more servers on the fly. The assignment of that particular system isn’t set by the hosting provider or by the end user. It’s just a pool of resources that provide a set of services to satisfy a requirement.

Some people take the definition even further and say that for something to be considered cloud computing, its distribution and management mechanisms must operate without human interaction. For instance, Google Search is a truly distributed environment. When a user types in a search term, his search is being performed by a number of computers in the data center that is closest to him, and the results might even be data that’s stored from a previous search. There is complete and total ambiguity, even on Google’s side, about where the search happens. The system decides on its own where the process is going to be handled and will even decide whether the outcome of that search will be stored for the future. This is the strictest definition of cloud computing. SalesForce.com is another example. It has completely severed the link between the infrastructure and the system that is presented to the end user. The company maintains many servers and data centers that perform and manage all of its services. This is particularly desirable for clients who require high levels of security. Some providers’ data centers are located in unmarked buildings, and none of their machines indicate whose information is on them because no one knows: The layer of abstraction in cloud computing’s data transference makes it impossible.

The competitive market seems to favor the least rigid definition of cloud computing. It generally considers cloud computing to be any hosted solution that takes a client’s environment and moves it into its own data center, which ITX has been doing for years. We host websites and email on our managed servers, so instead of having a server in-house, our clients outsource it to us and we put it into our infrastructure. From the clients’ point of view, because the equipment is not in their office and they don’t physically see and access it, the process has an ethereal quality, like a cloud, which is how the Internet is oftentimes represented in visual diagrams. All that the consumer sees is his data and an attractive interface. This trend in defining cloud computing tends to include all of the administrative functions that are being outsourced in relation to the hosted solution.

Because the market really defines the product more than any particular person and the market has taken the more liberal approach with cloud computing, we’re following that lead in our definition of it. We consider our cloud services to include:

• Web Hosting
• Mail Hosting
• Application Hosting
• QuickBooks Hosting
• Remote Desktop

Within our development technologies, we include:

• ITX CMS
• MobilityCMS
• Custom Cloud applications (i.e., applications built by us for clients, like SSRN)

Now that we know what cloud computing is, and some of the wide variety of products and services that it encompasses, let’s take a look at what it means for end-users.

Advantages of Cloud Computing

For businesses:

• Reduced capital costs. Clients pay for cloud services based on usage, like utilities, or by a set-price subscription, and no hardware, software or additional staff is required.
• Increased storage. Businesses are able to store more data remotely than they could on private computers.
• Enhanced speed and performance.
• IT maximization. Engineers can shift focus to development because administrative functions, including server updates and maintenance, are outsourced.
• Up-to-date applications. Upgrades are unnecessary.
• Flexibility. Capacity can be easily increased at any time.

Cloud computing is not just for large corporations; many small businesses are also benefitting from these resources.

For consumers:
In addition to many of the benefits that cloud computing offers businesses, the main advantage for consumers is mobility. Individuals can access their information wherever they are, from whichever device they choose. Most of us are already doing this to a large extent with our smartphones, iPads and iPods, but we are still accustomed to having all of our files and folders stored on our personal computers. Industry experts believe, however, that we will no longer use PCs in the not-so-distant future. Instead, consumers will follow suit with companies and have all of their data stored in a virtual cloud that we connect to using only our mobile devices. If we lose any of these devices, none of our documents will be lost because they aren’t technically there. We can simply access them from another device from where they are stored remotely. Cloud computing provides total back-up and availability of our personal resources from any location.

Consumers are already taking advantage of the cloud without realizing it when they use the social networks Facebook and Twitter, photograph-sharing sites like Flickr and Photobucket, music services like Pandora, shopping venues like eBay and Amazon, and the recently launched information storage technology iCloud. Most mobile apps are in some way touch cloud computing. The information that consumers want is constantly moving from one place to another depending on what space is available to the providers’ servers, but all the consumer knows is that none of that space is being taken up on their devices.

For applications that are graphic-heavy, we no longer require the storage space they utilize to be on our mobile devices. The capacity, along with the information, is held remotely with cloud computing. Computers and devices will continue to change because they will require less storage as we move toward the cloud, and just like we’ve seen with iPods and iPods, the cost of these electronics will decrease. As small as they are now, they will become more so, even as they gain in quality and speed.

Convenience is also increased. Information is readily available without having to plug in a device and sync it. For instance, with an MP3 player, all of a person’s music is instantaneously available by logging into a website. There’s no need to physically plug in the player, do a sync, and pick and choose the songs.

Disadvantages
There’s a downside to every new technology. Cloud computing is no exception, and two key vulnerabilities are worth considering for any business or consumer. First, service is dependent upon the speed and reliability of an internet connection and, second, it requires us to entrust private information to another entity.