Clouding Computing: What is it?
What is cloud computing?
Cloud computing is a service based model for computing resources that builds on existing concepts like virtualization and service-oriented architecture. The data, and processing for these services are kept in "the cloud", meaning that there is no specific location for them. The services are available over the Internet, and rented by the customer, instead of the customer needing to purchase the software and supply the infrastructure necessary to run the software.
Cloud storage offerings provide data storage and backup. This allows customers to store there data in an environment that is offsite, that is generally also very redundant itself. Cloud hosting is when vendors offer flexible server hosting in the cloud. Customers can add or remove servers on the fly to deal with fluctuations in demand.
One common term associated with cloud computing is software as a service (SaaS). Many companies like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft have started offering some of their software as services over the Internet.