Cloud Computing - Being on it and Staying Updated

Even though the latest corporate rush for cloud computing solutions may make us believe that it is a new phenomena, cloud computing was born the day email clients were opened to internet users.

As per a survey by SpamTitan, almost 69% of online users use cloud solutions. Be it for email storage, picture uploading or file sharing through sites like RapidShare, cloud computing is a rapidly evolving computing intelligence with the power of enhancing endpoint computing, optimizing device capabilities and lowering technological expenditure made on storage and hosting devices.

With its genesis traceable to consumer centric solutions, cloud computing has evolved to become a game changing technological solution for any business. It facilitates virtualization at a 'nickel and dime' cost. Post recession, the buzz has spread like fire and everyday a new application is being invented or, if we may say, 'discovered.'

As per the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Cloud Security Alliance, cloud, in essence, is a computing model that facilitates network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources, such as servers, storage devices or applications. In other terms, it can be considered as a solution in which the entire computation occurs through the internet. The highlight is that the user need not have the resources in-house, rather use a third party platform on consumption basis payouts.

Evolution of Cloud Computing Technologies

From just email clients to fully operational CRMs and Google Apps, cloud computing has evolved from being an end user centric technology to being a complete business technology assistant.

Software as a Service (SaaS) has become the most sought after service model due to its cost advantages. IT companies are developing turnkey projects with server supports to enable their buyers to buy just the licenses and use the software through a browser based interface.

Benefits of Cloud Computing

While for common users, the benefits of cloud computing have not evolved much and are limited to sharing files and storing data, it's the corporate world that is leveraging the technology to the fullest.

Right from Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) to private clouding, public clouding or hybrid clouding, enterprises all over the world have realized the true potential of clouds.

Some of the benefits are: 

• Reduced cost: As the entire platform gets centralized to (mostly) a third party provider, there is no need of investing in expensive infrastructure such as servers or storage assets. The payment is based on a pay per service model.
• Increased storage: As the entire process runs in clouds, one can integrate available storage assets with the storage in the cloud to enhance data governance and management.
• Highly automated: The focus shifts from managing in-house IT support to automating the process, without worrying about infrastructural costs.
• Mobility: Employees get to access business intelligence from anywhere, anytime across all heterogeneous computing devices.
• Instigates innovation: As IT is freed from regular maintenance, the focus shifts to the maintenance of other mission critical resources.
• Access to the latest technology: Whereas a few years ago, hosting a heavy application would have been a distant dream for a small business enterprise, cloud computing gives access to high end technology interface with minimum investment.
• Unparalleled collaboration: Rather than investing in convergence technologies, business can virtualize every step of their mission critical process, enabling greater collaboration and team work. This enables information sharing, editing, revision and the last stages of approval as well.

As more possibilities are being explored, new applications of cloud computing are getting discovered. Therefore, besides being present in the clouds, staying updated about the latest innovation has become pivotal for the success of a business.

Seminars and conferences are the best ways of keeping abreast with the latest in the clouding scenario and Cloud Slam [http://cloudslam10.com/] can keep you posted of all the latest conferences. It organizes differentiating conferences hosted by some of the leading technology gurus.

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