Cloud computing: What's all that about?
Hey guys, if you are still clueless about what Cloud computing is all about, no pain. Read on. Hopefully by the end of this article, you have just got the gist of it.
Shorn of the technical mumbo jumbo, Cloud computing is this:
Think of the current system of your computer, other computers and the Internet as a straight, narrow path linking mainframe servers (where all the data/information rests) with clients and their servers (the end-users). It is more in the nature of zigzag, linear, clean, aligned lines.
For our purposes, let us label this as Model No 1. In this, your PC (the hardware) is the end-user tool, enabling you, among other things, to log on to the Net or other PCs, straight or in a zigzag manner. Of course, what enables you to do this is your PC-based software which means platforms, operating systems, browsers, and so on and so forth. For Net-specific purpose, the machine allows you to log in to a site, a blog, an e-commerce site, etc. Model 1 means only two computers "talking" to each other in that moment in time. It also means you have ended up paying the initial price of your PC and the price of all those, (mostly irrelevant) software it comes bundled with plus the ones you need to buy later, and so on.
Now, think of a different model. For our purposes, let's call it Model No 2. We will use the metaphor 'Cloud' (yes, from the 'Real World', rain bearing clouds that so often roll along in the sky) to replace Path. This Model has no linear connections, no zigzag lines, no clean, straight lines. Instead, there is this huge, single vast space called Cloud where every thing - from software, operating systems, applications, browers, etc, reside. All that the end-user now has to do is to pluck out whatever he wishes for, from this Cloud. This Model means only whatever you pluck will have to paid for - whether it is an Internet product or other PC based applications.
Model 2 is formatted on the basis of a "Service" like the electricity that comes into your house. As an end user, you will still need a personal hardware - be it the PC or a mobile phone or any other gadget, to access the Cloud. But these will no longer be any high-end machines. The PC, for example, need not have all that software bundled in. Instead, it will be more of a "blank" PC. (Some thing like an interface or your TV remote). What the end-user will have to then do is click on the remote, pluck that software needed only for the specific purpose in mind at that moment in time, and use it. And most important, except the cost of this remote, you do not need to buy any thing else, no software, no additional hardware. Meaning no paying for modems, wires, official operating systems, maybe even anti-virus packages. Pay only for use, not for keeps.
Inversely, imagine this very vast cloud covering the entire globe, not shedding rain randomly but dropping water as and when asked for, by even a single citizen pressing a button from a very specific location on Earth. Similarly, using your PC or handset, you can make a certain software "rain" on to your instrument, for a specific purpose only. And like the electricity coming into your house, you will have to pay up only for what you use, may be as "rental" or "amount charged", for the little bit of software you have just used, and of course, for accessing that little bit of cyber space (net) Cloud. So, command the Cloud to rain, and collect the portion of water only meant only for you.
There are already examples existing in Model 1 that are actually "mini" examples of Model 2. Flickr is one such. The other is Amazon.
