To understand cloud computing, just compare it to something that you know, like Hotmail, Gmail, or even better, Nepal’s beloved Facebook. [break]
These services offer computing without using software or hardware located at your home or business, other then a simple web browser and Internet connection. For example, if you use Gmail as your primary email application - and interact with your Gmail account solely through your web browser - you are already flying high in terms of cloud computing.
Likewise with Facebook; if you are using Facebook to contact your friends, store or share photos, videos, and spend the entire evening constructing a new city block in City Ville, you are most certainly in the cloud when it comes to your computing behaviour.
Inversely, if you are someone using Microsoft Office applications, and continually upgrading these applications as well as your local storage to hold more content, you are firmly grounded in technology of the past decade, and perhaps falling behind the rolling curve of IT in 2011. And if you are a Nepali business or a development organization, you are probably so far behind on that curve; you can’t even see what you’re missing out on.
But that might be good news for those who have not yet begun to embrace the benefit of having local area networks with a client-server type model of computing. You or your organization might be able to just bypass these old-school setups and instead, leapfrog to the newer models blowing over the horizon.
One of the most striking benefits of cloud computing is lower costs. In a cloud environment, delivery of computing services to your staff turns from capital expenditures (high-end PCs, large server boxes, and internally created or maintained software packages) to operational expenditures (third-party cloud storage and application services). One example of how your organization could save big time in the future is with Microsoft’s new Office 365, currently out in public beta.
Office 365 is a completely web-based office application solution that is not charged per software license (nor requires a beefy desktop to run), but instead requires just a simple device that has Internet access via a modern web browser. In this scenario, each user pays just $6 USD per month to access all of Office’s new web-based tools and web-based personal and shared storage.
Since beta testing began, over 100,000 organizations have signed on board to give Office 365 a twirl. Tim O’Brian, Microsoft’s lead platform engineer says, “We are betting big on the cloud with our most successful product (MS Office) and we are investing heavily in product engineering and physical infrastructure. Think of it: no more problematic software installs or storage headaches for your organization’s spreadsheets, documents, images, or databases!”
However, cloud computing does raise some issues for groups or individuals moving in that direction.. Security comes to mind, as well as accessibility. For example, if you can’t get an Internet connection – ke garne! Yet cloud experts say that in terms of security, massive centralization of data and services improves it–and allows organizations that devote a large chunk of resources, keeping assets safe and free from local viral outbreaks and nasty malwares, to simply focus on something else.
For IT professionals concerned with multiple levels of redundancy and backup, private clouds is an option that offers yet another way to keep vital assets safe and secure.
Even for home users, there are already many free or low cost cloud solutions available.
Take for example, Dropbox, a drop-dead simple-to-use application that can take all of your sacred files and synchronize them with your own private and/or public place in the cloud. Dropbox has options to back up all of your local data, place your files in shared folders, and works with any device in the home or office (PCs, tablets, and smart phones).
Dropbox encrypts your data in the cloud, and even provides secure transmission back and forth.
Incase you delete a file or a folder, you can always recover it. In other words, your files are safer in your Dropbox than on your local computer. Use of the service is free up to 2 GB of files, and if you need more space, you just have to pay – $10 USD per month for up to 50GB.
Dropbox is just one great way to soar into the cloud, where more then a few IT experts predict we will all be floating around in very soon.
Jiggy Gaton is quirky kinda techo-expat who is also available as a cloud-computing consultant for your organization or business here in the Valley.
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