What is Cloud Computing?

November 12, 2020 admin 0 Comments

What is cloud computing? 

Simply put, cloud computing is the act of delivering on-demand computing services to customers, ranging from storage, databases, software, networking, analytics, intelligence to servers. Because these services are provided to customers over internet, they are cloud services. 

Customers are only required to pay for the cloud services that they are using, also dubbed as ‘pay-as-you-go’ model.  

While the term ‘cloud computing’ was coined only in the early 2000s, the concept is being used since 1960s, when computer owners would lend their mainframes to individuals or companies to do their work. When PCs were introduced in the market, this concept took a backseat for a couple of years.

The concept resurfaced again in late 1990s and early 2000s in different forms including grid computing, utility computing and application services providers. Cloud computing really came into existence when software as a service was introduced in the market. Since then, it has only become more popular over the last two decades.  

How does cloud computing work? 

With cloud computing, companies can use storage, networking, servers, databases, analytics and even intelligence without owning themselves. They can get access to any of their services by paying a monthly/yearly subscription fee to a cloud service provider. 

Once a company has paid the subscription fee, they have access to the services via the internet (cloud).