Cloud computing is internet based computing, whereby share resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices on demand, like the electricity grid. Cloud computing is a paradigm shift following the shift from mainframe to client-server in the early 1980s. Details are abstracted from the users who no longer have need foe expertise in, or control over the technology infrastructure “in the cloud” that supports them. Cloud computing describes a new supplement, consumption, and delivery model for it services based on the internet, and it typically involves over-the-internet provision of dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources which is a byproduct and consequence of the-ease-of-access to remote computing sites provided by the internet. This frequently takes the form of web-based tools or applications that users can access and use through a web browser as if it were a program installed locally on their own computer.
Many people are confused as to exactly what cloud computing is, especially as the term can be used to mean almost anything. Roughly, it describes highly scalable computing resources provided as an external service via the internet on a pay-as-you-go basis. The cloud is simply a metaphor for the internet, based on the symbol used to represent the worldwide network in computer network diagrams.
Economically, the main appeal of cloud computing is that customers only use what they need, and only pay for what they actually use. Resources are available to be accessed from the cloud at any time, and from any location via the internet. There’s no need to worry about how things are being maintained behind the scenes –you simply purchase the IT service you require as you would any other utility. Because of this, cloud computing has also been called utility computing, or ‘IT on demand’.
This new, web-based generation of