Cloud computing:A basic Idea

Cloud Computing

Wikipedia defines it as “internet based development of computer technology”

Until now we have been mainly using Internet for our needs for “information”. Now we are going to use the internet as a “Platform” on which we can run software.

Still now, we have seen software as a “product” which can be bought permanently. This article will change your perception towards “software”.

Imagine the business model of BSNL. You cannot buy the “telephone” one time and say that you have “bought” the whole Telephone Network (…  I am not talking about Billionaires…!). You have to pay for the “service”. So, you basically use telephone as a “service” rather than an “object” which can be bought from a shop.

Look around you, and you will find a number of services you use daily like the Electricity, Water supply…etc

So this theory can also be applied to the “Software” world. Think about Microsoft word, suppose instead of buying the costly Office suite as a product, you only pay for the “amount of time” you use MS word and the “amount of Data” you process, through it.

This model is termed as SOFTWARE as a SERVICE (SaaS).

Well this is exactly what next generation software is going to be….

Sounds bad????

Think again!!!.The software does not need to be installed “in your local Hardware”. The software does not use your computer as the “platform”; instead it uses the INTERNET as the platform. Technically, the application is said to run on the “Cloud” (Think about it as dozens of web server is running a single Microsoft word..though this is not the exact representation).So irrespective of the power of your computer, it can run application smoothly. So actually, your data and your application are sitting on servers that you control. There are no restrictions on moving data into or off your Cloud Infrastructure. These servers are for all practical purposes indistinguishable from servers in your physical data center.

The internet ensures platform independence but the full feature set can be utilised only when coupled with certain other software,APIs,etc example: Flash in Youtube...

Examples:

 Microsoft Live Workspace:

It is similar to the example I shared with you’ll. You can access the entire Microsoft Office suite along with its latest features through the Internet, irrespective of the configuration your computer. Your work is stored in online folders called SKYDRIVE so you don’t even need Pen drives to carry your work.  You don’t need to have MS Office installed. All it requires is web browser (like Internet Explorer) and a decent internet bandwidth.

This is particularly useful for project works when different parts of a single document is being edited by a number of individuals simultaneously, so you have one final copy instead of ,merging individual copies.

All Microsoft Live services are based on the cloud computing Model.

The best part is that this service is absolutely free!!!

Orkut  : It is also based on SaaS model. Social networking sites provide you a service in exchange of ads.

YouTube: This also is a classic example of SaaS. The video runs on your computer irrespective of whether you have any “media player”. But you still need flash player to run the video.

 

Cloud computing has also given rise to HaaS (Hardware as a Service)

Suppose instead of buying the entire processor, you only pay for the amount of processing power you need for processing your data, data storage and data transfer.

So this actually refers to the “purchasing of Processing Capacity” over the web. (Google has launched a similar service called the App Engine permitting developers to run web applications on Google’s Infrastructure)

Advantages of HaaS

1. It allows users to change their online hardware at any point of time.
2. Users can choose their own specifications.
3. Cheaper than actual hardware.

So now we can see, individuals as well as organizations can connect to “Cloud” computing resources to fuel their information activities rather than having to having to install “software” on their hardware.

So these are the some aspects of Cloud computing….Hope the article was informative…

 

Abhik Mitra

 

MICROSOFT STUDENT PARTNER

IT 2^ND YEAR

HERITAGE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, KOLKATA