What is ‘cloud computing’?
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 computing utilises remote servers housed in highly secure data centres for data storage and management, so organisations no longer need to purchase and look after their IT solutions in-house.
What services can be used in the cloud?
There are numerous services that can be delivered through cloud computing, taking advantage of the distributed cloud model. We are able to provide a range of the most popular cloud-based IT solutions:
