cloud computing

Reprints Cloud computing is a general term for anything that involves delivering hosted services over the Internet. These services are broadly divided into three categories: Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). The name cloud computing was inspired by the cloud symbol that's often used to represent the Internet inflowcharts and diagrams. A cloud service has three distinct characteristics that differentiate it from traditional hosting. It is sold on demand, typically by the minute or the hour; it is elastic -- a user can have as much or as little of a service as they want at any given time; and the service is fully managed by the provider (the consumer needs nothing but a personal computer and Internet access). Significant innovations in virtualization and distributed computing, as well as improved access to highspeed Internet and a weak economy, have accelerated interest in cloud computing. A cloud can be private or public. A public cloud sells services to anyone on the Internet. (Currently, Amazon Web Services is the largest public cloud provider.) A private cloud is a proprietary network or a data center that supplies hosted services to a limited number of people. When a service provider uses public cloud resources to create their private cloud, the result is called a virtual private cloud. Private or public, the goal of cloud computing is to provide easy, scalable access to computing resources and IT services. Infrastructure-as-a-Service like Amazon Web Services provides virtual server instanceAPI) to start, stop, access and configure their virtual servers and storage. In the enterprise, cloud computing allows a company to pay for only as much capacity as is needed, and bring more online as soon as required. Because this pay-for-what-you-use model resembles the way electricity, fuel and water are consumed, it's sometimes referred to as utility computing.

Platform-as-a-service in the cloud is defined as a set of software and product development tools hosted on the provider's infrastructure. Developers create applications on the provider's platform over the Internet. PaaS providers may use APIs, website portals or gateway software installed on the customer's computer. Force.com, (an outgrowth of Salesforce.com) and GoogleApps are examples of PaaS. Developers need to know that currently, there are not standards for interoperability or data portability in the cloud. Some providers will not allow software created by their customers to be moved off the provider's platform. In the software-as-a-service cloud model, the vendor supplies the hardware infrastructure, the software product and interacts with the user through a frontend portal. SaaS is a very broad market. Services can be anything from Web-based email to inventory control and database processing. Because the service provider hosts both the application and the data, the end user is free to use the service from anywhere.

What is cloud computing?

Everyone is talking about the cloud. But what does it mean?
Business applications are moving to the cloud. Its not just a fadthe shift from traditional software models to the Internet has steadily gained momentum over the last 10 years. Looking ahead, the next decade of cloud computing promises new ways to collaborate everywhere, through mobile devices.

Life before cloud computing

Traditional business applications have always been very complicated and expensive. The amount and variety of hardware and software required to run them are daunting. You need a whole team of experts to install, configure, test, run, secure, and update them. When you multiply this effort across dozens or hundreds of apps, its easy to see why the biggest companies with the best IT departments arent getting the apps they need. Small and mid-sized businesses dont stand a chance.

Cloud computing: a better way

With cloud computing, you eliminate those headaches because youre not managing hardware and softwarethats the responsibility of an experienced vendor like salesforce.com. The shared infrastructure means it works like a utility: You only pay for what you need, upgrades are automatic, and scaling up or down is easy.

Cloud-based apps can be up and running in days or weeks, and they cost less. With a cloud app, you just open a browser, log in, customize the app, and start using it. Businesses are running all kinds of apps in the cloud, like customer relationship management (CRM), HR, accounting, and much more. Some of the worlds largest companies moved their applications to the cloud with salesforce.com after rigorously testing the security and reliability of our infrastructure. As cloud computing grows in popularity, thousands of companies are simply rebranding their non-cloud products and services as cloud computing. Always dig deeper when evaluating cloud offerings and keep in mind that if you have to buy and manage hardware and software, what youre looking at isnt really cloud computing but a false cloud.

Cloud 2: Mobility and collaboration

The latest innovations in cloud computing are making our business applications even more mobile and collaborative, similar to popular consumer apps like Facebook and Twitter. As consumers, we now expect that the information we care about will be pushed to us in real time, and business applications in the cloud are heading in that direction as well. With Cloud 2, keeping up with your work is as easy as keeping up with your personal life on Facebook.

What is cloud computing? What unique advantages does cloud computing offer my business?
The cloud computing infrastructure is revolutionising all fundamental areas of IT -from security and investment in infrastructure to application development. Pre-Cloud Computing Most IT departments spent an excessive part of their time on frustrating implementation, maintenance, and upgrade projects - without adding value to the company's bottom line. IT teams in major global organisations and small businesses in India are turning to Salesforce's cloud computing technology in order to minimise time wasted on lower-value activities - allowing IT to focus on high impact strategic activities. Post Cloud Computing In the Third Millennium, the Salesforce collaborative software allows your IT department in India to operate with more breadth and depth, allowing teams to work together on business projects, timeline, calendars and reports, combining collective expertise to tap into the power of the collaborative. Some of the world's largest organisations are adopting cloud technology to increase their power and efficiency.

How Does Cloud Computing Help My Team Work Smarter?

Proven Web-services integration. Cloud computing technology is far easier to integrate with your existing applications - whether traditional or virtual.

100% virtual infrastructure - No Software = no onsite installation. Cloud computing slashes the capital costs of getting up and running. Faster and lower-risk deployment. With cloud server technology you can save your business years and millions of dollars: cloud computing applications can be up and running within weeks, even with extensive customisation and integration. Log into your new solution faster! Support for deep customisations. Cloud computing in India allows deep customisation and application configuration. What's more, cloud computing technology is well suited to application development, ideal for your organisation's constant evolution. Empowered business users. Cloud computing technology allows instant, point-and-click customisation and report generation for business users. So IT doesn't have to spend half its time making minor amendments and running reports. Automatic upgrades with no downside. Cloud computing infrastructures allow you to upgrade to the latest-and-greatest version of an application without spending precious time and resources rebuilding customisations and integrations. You no longer have to choose between upgrading and preserving all your hard work, because all customisations and integrations are automatically preserved - during and after an upgrade. Pre-built, pre-integrated apps for cloud computing technology. On the Force.com AppExchange you can find a wealth of applications built for cloud computing infrastructure, pre-integrated with your Salesforce CRM application. Salesforce is India's world class cloud technology company that builds your business faster, more securely, with greater reliability and constant upgradeability. Come join us in the cloud!
Let's say you're an executive at a large corporation. Your particular responsibilities include making sure that all of your employees have the right hardware and software they need to do their jobs. Buying computers for everyone isn't enough -- you also have to purchase software or software licenses to give employees the tools they require. Whenever you have a new hire, you have to buy more software or make sure your current software license allows another user. It's so stressful that you find it difficult to go to sleep on your huge pile of money every night. Soon, there may be an alternative for executives like you. Instead of installing a suite of software for each computer, you'd only have to load one application. That application would allow workers to log into a Web-based service which hosts all the programs the user would need for his or her job. Remote machines owned by another company would run everything from e-mail to word processing to complex data analysis programs. It's called cloud computing, and it could change the entire computer industry. In a cloud computing system, there's a significant workload shift. Local computers no longer have to do all the heavy lifting when it comes to running applications. The network of computers that make up the cloud handles them instead. Hardware and software demands on the user's side decrease. The only thing the user's computer needs to be able to run is the cloud computing system's interface software, which can be as simple as a Web browser, and the cloud's network takes care of the rest.

There's a good chance you've already used some form of cloud computing. If you have an e-mail account with a Web-based e-mail service like Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail or Gmail, then you've had some experience with cloud computing. Instead of running an e-mail program on your computer, you log in to a Web e-mail account remotely. The software and storage for your account doesn't exist on your computer -- it's on the service's computer cloud.