Cloud Computing

I’d say cloud computing typically represents using software not hosted on your local computer, but on the internet. So in a sense the internet itself can be considered a cloud, but when we talk about specific services and software we talk about specific networks which are a part of the internet. In other words, the internet is the network of clouds, the cloud of all clouds.

Cloud computing is a phenomenon made possible because of the increasing speed of broadband Internet and the ability for people to access web pages at lightning fast speeds. Without these fast speeds, people would be unable to compute in the clouds. To better understand how cloud computing works, it is beneficial to understand what it is.

Cloud computing is a grid of computers that acts like the architecture necessary to provide software and data to other computers. Its purpose is to deliver software that might be put on the architecture by a company to individual computers connected to the Internet. For example, Google Documents is software that is “in the clouds” that delivers a word processing program to people without them needing to install it on their computer. And, with the power of Google’s servers, they can then save those files right “in the clouds” without needing to burden their own hard drive.