What is Cloud Computing?

I am shocked!  I did a quick search for an easy to understand definition of Cloud Computing, and I couldn't find even one.  Every definition used terms like "hosted services," "depoloyment," and "infrastructure."  I can assure you that my grandmother would be clueless - and your's would too!  Just because some of us are computer guys doesn't mean we can't speak in every-day English.  So here I will offer a simple definition.

The cloud is the Internet.  Now hold that thought.

At home, most of us store our files on a personal computer, and when we want to open those files, we have to go to the computer for the files.  For example, Grandma puts all of her pictures on her computer.  When she goes to lunch with friends, she has to invite them to her house or bring her laptop with her to show off the latest pictures of the grandchildren.

With cloud computing, the files are stored in the cloud - or on the Internet.  How do we do that?

If you are using email such as hotmail or gmail, you are already storing your email messages in the cloud. Right?  This is called web-based email.  You go to a website such as hotmail.com or gmail.com and you log in.  From there you read new mail and send messages - and all of your email is in the cloud.  You can log in to your email from any computer that has access to the Internet.

So how do you save files in the cloud instead of on a personal computer?  The easiest way is to use a cloud-based service such as Dropbox.  When you install Dropbox on your computer, it creates a directory on your computer.  If you save documents or pictures in My Documents/My Pictures, they will be located on the computer, but if you save them in My Documents/My Dropbox, they will be stored on a Dropbox computer which is located in the cloud - and you can open those files from any computer.

Another benefit of cloud computing is that many of the cloud-based services offer apps for smart phones and tablets, giving you better access to the files you have stored in the cloud.

So now, when Grandma is at lunch with her friends, she can log in to the cloud from any computer to show off the pictures of the grandchildren.  If you provide her with a smart phone, she can show off her pictures even easier.

Other Cloud-Based Services

Google Documents
Box.net
Sugarsync
Picasa
MobileMe
Amazon S3