Cloud Computing

As Oracle CEO Larry Ellison stated "cloud computing is going to be or already is the most important computing architecture in the world"
Cloud computing is where data, software applications and computer processing power are acceded from a cloud of online resources. This permits individual users access to their data and applications form any device. It also allows organisations to reduce their costs by purchasing software and hardware as a service.

There are three main reasons why cloud computing is becoming so popular.
1. Scalability - With cloud computing it is easy to grow or shrink your hardware/sofware to match your demand.
2. Instant - Cloud computing is instant to match your demand, whatever the needs of the organisation, these resources are instantly available to them using cloud computing.
3. Save Money - The organisation only pays for what it uses and when it uses it.

There are three main types of cloud computing.
Software as a service - This is the most commonly used type of cloud computing. It provides, through a web browser, all the functions of a traditional application. These are hosted by a service provider and are made available over a network. Examples of this type of cloud computing would be Clarizen's online project management tools, Salesforce's customer relationship management and human resource applications and webware's online office applications.
Hardware as a service - This is where computing processing capacity, including storage, servers and network components are purchased over the web. Amazon's Elastic Compute loud is a good example of this. EC2 allows users to purchase computer processing power online for whatever needs they may have.
Platform as a service - This is where users can use applications on visualized servers without having to worry about maintaining the operating systems, server hardware and computer capacity. Microsoft's Azure is a good example of this.