Cloud computing is a term that has been thrown around more and more in recent years – and for good reason. This is because it is nothing short of the next stage of evolution in computer software. Gone are the days of installing programs on your computer before being able to use them, having to send files to others through email in order for them view or work with them, and constantly checking for and installing updates on a regular basis.
This new style of computing can be more easily understood by explaining what it is not, before explaining what it is. So the basics of traditional software programs will be explained first, and then the explanation of what these new programs are and how they work will become much clearer. And with that said, let’s get started.
Most of us are familiar with what traditional programs are and how they work. They are the ones that you must buy the CD or DVD from the store, or from the company’s website. Then you must put the disc into our computer or save the download, open the setup program, and install it onto the hard drive on your computer. Finally, you are then able to complete the initial setup steps, and begin using the program.
Of course even though you can use the program on your computer, you won’t be able to use it on your friend’s computer, a computer at work, at school, at the library, or any other computer for that matter. That is unless one of those other computers also has the same program installed on it. But even if that is the case, you won’t have access to any of the files you’ve created using that program unless you have them with you on a flash drive or some other form of portable storage device.
This new type of program is different than traditional programs in some very important ways. First of all, you don’t need to buy any CDs or DVDs, or download any setup files in order to use one of these programs. And in most cases, you need not worry about carrying your files around with you either. These are the reasons why they are so evolutional.
These programs are installed on the host company’s own servers and access to them is granted to users through a web browser. It doesn’t matter which web browser is being used (for the most part) because they all handle the same universal internet programming languages in order to provide an interface to the program. No space on the user’s computer hard drive is used, but the program can still be used anytime, from any computer with an internet connection.
It’s easy to see why cloud computing is gaining popularity with computer users since it’s so much more convenient than are traditional programs. And software companies are taking notice of this and developing programs that can be used in the cloud because of it. You can be sure that there will be more and more programs available to be used in the cloud in the near future.