Cloud Computing

The next topic we covered was Cloud computing. Cloud computing is the term given to anything that involves delivering hosted services over the internet. The name "Cloud Computing" comes from the way the internet is depicted in network diagrams. Cloud computing can be broken down into 3 categories:

• Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
• Hardware-as-a-Service (HaaS)
• Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)

Software-as-a-Service basically offers users applications which are hosted by vendors. These include online management tools from Clarzon and Office applications from Google Docs. This allows users to upload documents to their "cloud" and then edit them as they please from any device with an internet connection. Hardware-as-a-Service is basically the selling of processing power over the internet. Users are charged based on computer cause, storage and processing power from providers such as Amazon with their EC2 service. Platform-as-a-Service allows the delivery of operating systems and associated services over the internet. This allows operating system features to be changed and upgraded frequently.

From the presentation my group compared on cloud computing, I learned that it has the potential to be a very viable technology in the future if it is developed properly. It allows smaller businesses access to processing power and software that would normally be beyond their reach. The fact that this technology is so promising has been reflected in the calibre of company that has made strides into develeoping it - IBM, Google and Amazon.