What Is Cloud Computing?

Date First Published: 30th March 2022

Topic: Computer Networking

Subtopic: Network Services

Article Type: Computer Terms & Definitions

Difficulty Level: 5/10

Learn more about what cloud computing is in this article.

Cloud computing refers to the use of hosted services delivered over the internet to store, manage, and process data rather than personal computers or local server. In other words, it is the use of computing power and resources without active management by the user or intervention with the owner of the cloud provider. An example of cloud computing is the accessing of software over the internet that is stored and run on a server rather than locally on the hard drive of a personal computer.

Dropbox, Microsoft Azure, AWS (Amazon Web Services), Gmail, and Mega are the most common cloud computing services. The software runs on the remote server and is accessed through a web browser. Cloud computing services might require a monthly fee, although a lot of services are free of charge for basic features.

Note:

The services offered over the internet from servers all around the world are referred to as the ‘cloud’. This metaphor came from the cloud system that was often used to represent the internet in diagrams and flowcharts.

Advantages and Disadvantages Of Cloud Computing

• Since cloud-based software does not need to be installed on individual computers, it makes it easier to maintain software and saves hard disk space.
• It offers an easy backup of information and data - Even if a computer crashed or the hard disk got corrupted, the information would still be accessible over the cloud.
• It is available 24/7. It is possible for users to upload and download data from the cloud at any time and on any day unless the cloud servers go down. Software can be accessed flexibly whenever there is an internet connection.
• Data can automatically be synchronised between multiple devices. For example, a document updated on one computer will be updated on all the other computers. This is useful for collaborative working as is in a business, employees can work on a document together without having to be in the same building.

• It could be hacked into. Hackers could gain unauthorised access to data stored online with sensitive information, causing a data breach.
• Downtime - When the cloud servers are down, usually due to maintenance or network congestion, it will be impossible for anyone to access the hosted services for a certain period of time.
• It always relies on having a stable and fast internet connection. Accessing these services might require a high bandwidth.

Forms Of Cloud Computing

Three forms of cloud computing exist, which provide different delivery of services. These include:

• IaaS (Infrastructure of a service) - A virtual server, as well as an API (Application Programming Interface) is provided by IaaS providers, such as AWS (Amazon Web Services). This allows users to transfer content to virtual machines. Each and every user has an allocated storage capacity and has the ability to configure the settings and storage of the virtual machine. Amazon provides a variety of different cloud computing services.
• PaaS (Platform as a service) - These tools are accessed through the internet over APIs or web portals. Development tools are hosted by cloud providers on their infrastructures. It is used for the purpose of software development and PaaS providers host the software after it has been developed. Google App Engine and AWS Elastic Beanstalk are examples of common PaaS applications.
• SaaS (Software as a service) - A distribution model of cloud computing that hosts software applications, called web services. Users gain access to software applications and databases in this model. Microsoft 365 is an example of a SaaS application.

Difference Between Cloud Computing and Cloud Storage

The main difference between cloud computing and cloud storage is that cloud computing refers more to the usage of resources over the cloud, such as processing power and allows users to work on and complete projects and cloud storage refers more to data storage capacity that is made available over the cloud and allows users to store files. Cloud storage is simply a data storage service, whilst cloud computing allows users to remotely work on and transform data. Cloud storage is a type of cloud computing as data has to be moved to the cloud before using cloud computing systems.

History

Large mainframe computers were used by a lot of companies in the 1950s. The costs of buying a separate computer for each user were too high. As a result, a process called time-sharing was introduced in order to make more effective use of processor time on the central mainframe. This allowed users to access computer mainframes at the same time and gain access to shared computing resources. This time period represents the first use of shared computing resources.

The sharing of computing resources originated in 1969 from ARPANET, an experimental network that was developed by the ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency). It was created when the US military was interested in creating a network that could share data between different users around the world.

In the 1970s, the introduction of virtual machines that enabled users to run more than one operating system on a computer was helpful in developing the concept of virtualisation. This had a huge effect on the progress of cloud computing.

Technologies that enhanced the cloud environment, cloud server, and server hosting were developed by Microsoft and Apple in the 1970s and 1980s. The launch of AWS by Amazon provided storage and other services in the cloud. In addition, Microsoft and Google launched their own storage and other services around this time. Onedrive, originally called Skydrive, was released on 1st August 2007 and Google Drive was released a number of years later on 24th April 2012.