Cloud Computing

Cloud ComputingCloud computing is a kind of computer services. This term is one piece of the Information Technology. It refers the using of shared resources, software and information like a provision of computer systems and other kinds of devices using a web (like Internet). The term includes software as a service called SaaS, infrastructure as service called IaaS, platform as service called PaaS and other modern technologies which in the form of an online business applications that are findable through web browsers perform computing needs while save the software and the user data in own servers. So we can say that this is connected to software applications provided in the shape of web services but also the admission to the hardware and system resources of data centers which offer these services. Actually the combination between the admission of the hardware and software in the data services is what is called a “cloud”. Some consider and state that it is another word used for the Internet because it is often described in similar way in diagrams of computer webs.

In 1997 the NetCentric Company tries to make the trademark “cloud computing” but later in 1999 the company abandons the idea. In 2001 in an article of the New York Times the phrase is mentioned by the software engineer David Weiner and it is used in the same way as nowdays. Officially the term is established by Eric Schmidt in 2006. That happened on a conference that was about the search machines.

There isn’t an accurate definition of the concept and that leads to different understandings of the technology of cloud computing. Different sources extract different types of characteristics of the so called “cloud”.

One source points out five major characteristics – on demand self service; nationwide web access which means an admission to the service from all over the world through all standard and modern devices with a connection to the Internet; the resources used for storage and treatment of all user’s data is equally spread in one general infrastructure; variable searching through which users could change the capacity of the searched service; pay per use where the payment of services is defined by the consummation of used calculating power or a computer memory.

Other source decreases these characteristics to only three – the cloud computing creates the illusion of endless calculating resources that are available on request which actually eliminates the need to make long-term plans for the delivery of this kind of resources; companies have the chance to start with an order of not much software and hardware resources and then to increase the orders when their needs get bigger; the cloud computing give the opportunity only the consumed and computed resources to be paid for short period of time while being used.

Other different sources suggest other characteristics of the cloud computing.

There are four pieces of the “cloud”:

A private cloud – the infrastructure of that cloud is taken by only one organization and it is used only by it.
A public cloud – the infrastructure of that cloud is used by one organization and the “cloud” is sold to the wider audience.
A community cloud – the infrastructure of this cloud is shared by several separate organizations and it serves as supporting a specific community of users which share common views and ideas
A hybrid cloud – the infrastructure of that cloud is mixed into two or more clouds which maintain single although they are really connected through standardized technology.
The term “cloud computing” has conflicting acceptance. There are some people that criticize it and call it “a trap for users” or “a marketing trick that aims the users”. Of course there are many supporters that think that this is the technology of the near and far future.