What Is The Cloud?
Feb 17 2009
What is The Cloud?
In association with Rackspace
For anyone running a small business the “buzz words” that come from the IT industry on a regular basis can be bewildering. For those who are not IT experts talk of the latest must-have product or service can be very confusing; particularly when they all seem to promise greater efficiencies and cost savings. The latest hot topic is the Cloud. The confusion around cloud is not helped by the fact that there are so many definitions flying around. However, it is fair to say that cloud genuinely has all the hallmarks of being a disruptive technology that could revolutionise the way small businesses are created and run. But if a lack of understanding about cloud exists, how can those are already running, or looking to start a business really reap the rewards that the cloud promises?
In short Cloud is simply computing delivered over the web. It is that simple and easy to understand but what it offers for small businesses is a revolution in the way they think about and consume computing. It offers a cheaper and easier way to buy computing power. Seldom do these two qualities go together but when they do, things can change in a big way.
Today, a whole new model is emerging. Nicholas Carr, the American writer, was the first to compare computing to a utility, and the movement behind the cloud is indeed creating an endless and easy supply to a very powerful resource.
Historically, business that wanted to harness computing power for say an ecommerce web site would have to invest in hardware and software and make sure they were capable of installing and maintaining this investment. This would quite probably be a long way from the core activities of the business. In the next 10 years small businesses will not buy, own or operate servers, they will consume IT services over the web leaving them to concentrate on their core business.
Cloud provides small businesses with the flexibility to scale up their site rapidly, to meet sudden spikes in traffic and also offers a pay-as-you-use model.
This is a cost effective approach to technology as small businesses don’t need to make upfront capital investments in hardware or software, but can still get access to best-of-breed technology through third party suppliers.
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