What is Cloud Computing?

“I don’t need a hard disk in my computer, if I can get to the server faster; carrying around these non connected computers is excessively complex by comparison.” –Steve Jobs

Is this Cloud in the sky?

No, the Cloud is just a metaphor for Internet. The term Cloud used in science is used to describe collection of objects that visually appear from a distance as a cloud.

What’s the cloud?

Remote machines owned by another company run everything from e-mail to word processing to complex data analysis programs over a network, where a these applications may run on many connected computers at the same time. You need to access your data or your programs over the Internet using Cloud Computing.

Where it is?

Cloud Computing is divided into 2 sections:

• The front end is the side the computer user, or client, sees.
• The back end is the "cloud" section of the system.

What’s the architecture?

The services offered by the Cloud Computing providers are based on different fundamental models, like:

1. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): Most basic cloud service model, providers of IaaS offer computer’s physical & virtual machines and other resources like Server storage, load balancers, networking and many more. E.g. Google Compute Engine. Windows Azure.
2. Platform as a Service (PaaS): Cloud providers deliver a computing platform, typically including operating system, programming language execution environment, database, and web server. e.g. Force.com, Google App Engine
3. Software as a Service (SaaS): Cloud providers offers user access to application software and databases such as CRM, Email, virtual desktop, communications, games and many more.

“Every kid coming out of Harvard, every kid coming out of school now thinks he can be the next Mark Zuckerberg, and with these new technologies like cloud computing, he actually has a shot.” –Marc Andreessen, Board Member of Facebook

For more Information about Cloud Computing please attend the Cloud Computing workshops