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| About Cloud Computing |
With Cloud Computing you access your software programs, data, storage and backups through the internet. Your business only needs an internet enabled device to access everything.
Most internet data travels under-ground or under water, not through the sky, so a more appropriate term maybe 'The Dirt', or 'The Subterrane'? (Dirt Nous doesn't quite have the same feel as our Cloud Nous.) This Cloud reference has nothing to do with data flow or processing.
The Cloud icon has been used for decades in the computer world, starting as the icon used in flow charts (an example shown at left) where the action in this Cloud was not important to the overall processes being charted; it simply just happened.
From there the Cloud icon spread as a common reference to the internet, probably for the same reason listed above, as the internet just happens, right?
This image to the right is taken from the 1998 edition of 'Computer Desktop Encyclopedia' and shows the use of a Cloud to represent the internet.
Use of the term Cloud from there understandably migrated to Cloud Computing and has become the standard term for internet accessed computing.
No! It is likely you use a Cloud Computing service, probably did today! Examples of Cloud applications include:
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A Microsoft sponsored survey by Penn, Schoen and Berland in Dec 2009, found that 91% of the general US population reported using a Cloud Computing service.
With Australia's take rate for technology and use of social media it is reasonable to expect our usage rates would be similar to those in the USA.
So you are probably already a Cloud Computing user! Don't feel bad if you didn't know, of those participants in the Penn, Schoen and Berland survey, 76% handn't heard the term Cloud Computing or only knew the name, nothing else! (nor should they need to)
So maybe your business doesn't use Facebook or Yahoo, but you probably do use Cloud Computing!
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Internet banking? Research through Google? Tax submissions online? - all Cloud Computing!
The same survey found that over half of US businesses are using Cloud Computing services and again there is little reason to think Australian business would be different.
Most Small & Medium Busineses do not have the resources to establish and maintain a an IT infastructure that meets their business needs; these resources include money, time and expertise.
Using a Cloud Provider takes away this need and the business just uses the computing resources they need, growing and contracting their IT resource as business demands.
Cloud users save on up-front costs with no Capital Expenditure. They are also able to substantially reduce the costs needed to maintain and upgrade hardware.
The Cloud advantages include:
(under development, please check back in 24 hours!)
