What is Cloud Computing?

Could computing is a way to deliver Services rather than Applications so that you are not reliant on any specific Hardware or Software manufacturer to achieve greater productivity in what you're trying to accomplish.

As an example, if you want to send a Word document to a friend, it becomes important for you to know if the version of Microsoft Office that is being used by your friend is the same as (or newer than) the version you are typing in. Also, this assumes that your friend uses Windows. If your friend didn't use Windows and used Linux instead, you would have to know if he/she uses a Wordprocessing program that is capable of opening Microsoft Word documents. All that is quite cumbersome.

Cloud computing makes the lives of developers easier by allowing them to create 'Services' rather than 'Applications'. This means that the Service of transmitting text to your friend would not care what Operating System, Application version etc is being used. It is focused on the delivery of the service regardless of what goes on within the Cloud.

The Cloud therefore, is a technical mess of instructions, that is able to accept most kinds of input and translate it to most types of output. Think of Cloud Computing as being the stuff that takes care of the result you're trying to achieve without making you stick to specific manufacturers who provide you the Hardware and Software to interact with the Cloud.

Here are common Cloud Computing examples:

• Google apps provide business applications that are accessible by any web browser regardless of manufacturer of browser or the Operating System the browser runs on (this is a 'Software as a Service' model).
• Company data is stored on a centralized Server which is accessed by workstations to perform daily updates ('Data Center' model).

The more you define Cloud Computing beyond this, the more it will become ambiguous. By far, we believe that this is the best explanation of Cloud Computing. We invite anyone to challenge it.