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Keep hearing this new buzzword a lot? yet have no idea what does that mean to you any way? keep reading..

What is Cloud Computing?
Debate is still going on to decide on a definition for the term, yet put in simple sense, it is the ability to use the Internet to allow people to access technology-enabled services.

(Image Source:http://www.infoworld.com/archives/t.jsp?N=s&V=97481&source=fssr)

Advantages of cloud computing?
Some of the advantages that comes to mind are:

• High availability of resources.
• Easy Scalability
• Easy license management
• Easy management of hardware and software.

What exactly that would mean to us?

This concept could be easily understood by an old school student as it follows the dumb terminal model, the difference however is that it is at a much higher level, basically at a global level.

1. It means that all technology enabled services, be it hardware or software would be available in a central location. User(end users like you and me, and even enterprises), would no longer need to buy expensive hardware and upgrade it every few years, instead they just need some terminal/devices to interact with the cloud.
2. On a security point of view, users would no longer be bothered about software patches and upgrades, they would always have the latest available to them. The engineers maintaining the cloud database would take care of the rest. So no more windows updates or driver updates . It would easily take care of zero-day attacks and anti-virus updates etc.
3. High availability of resources would make sure that jobs are executed based on priority. Say you need to do a job that would require 100hrs of a CPU power, with cloud computing’s vast resource, you could hire 100 computers for an hour and get your job done. It may be a bit more expensive, but hey, you got to save 99hrs rite??
4. This concept could also mean that software licenses could be bought and sold. Once a user buys a software, he could use it for certain timeframe and then resell it(called First sale Rights), which is currently not an option.
5. Again no need to buy expensive one time hardware for certain use(like more RAM or high processing power for a particular job).  You can easily rent that for a certain amount of time.
6. Data in cloud means you have access to your data 24/7/365. Data would not be tied to any particular set of hardware like PC’s and mobiles, rather any device tagged to you would be able to use the data(depending on the type of data-device) Eg. You can buy songs which is stored in the cloud in your home directory, which could be played by your mp3 player, or maybe through your car’s stereo, or maybe the PC itself or even the mobile phone. Just one copy of data and any device could access it.

Cloud computing is still in its infancy. Major organizations like Google, Microsoft, IBM, Amazon etc are betting on it. Amazon has already launched its version of cloud computing architecture. Microsoft is still working with their Live Mesh, while Google and IBM have joined hands to create the greatest datacenter on the planet.