Cloud Computing

(I wrote this article for a Content Writing Test that I appeared for. I have written this article in 30 minutes, and had a 15 minutes Internet access for research.)

If you use Google Docs, or Microsoft’s SkyDrive, Office 365, ActiveSync applications, you’re already a part of the Cloud Computing revolution, the biggest leap in technology after the world wide web.

The simple idea behind cloud computing is this: a person can sync and store all his personal data online, and then access it from anywhere.

Instead of installing huge, memory-hungry softwares on his PC, he can use them via a web browser.
This phenomena, is called working from the cloud, where the ‘Cloud’ is the internet backbone.
The difference in cloud computing and earlier technologies used for sharing of resources is that a user, doesn’t have to worry about configuration of the location of server, port names etc.

The launch of Google’s Chromebook has put a spotlight on Cloud Computing. It’s not a high-end gadget, but a notebook with plain-vanilla processor, and even lesser RAM and hard disk space than our old laptops. To use it, all you have to do is to connect it with the internet and you’re ready to go.

The advantages of Cloud Computing are immediately obvious.

• You can work with people across the globe simultaneously on the creation of a worksheet (Google Docs), or blog post (Windows Live).
• For an organisation, you don’t have to buy computers, and then install expensive application suites. Remotely situated servers will do everything for you, starting from e-mail to word processing to complex astronomical calculations. A lot of new start-ups have sprung to harvest the reaps of Cloud Computing by providing these services for a fee.
• Also, there's a significant change in hardware requirements. So gone is the need to keep upgrading the RAM and hard disk and processor and what-not. Costly maintenance is gone.If companies switch to using cloud servers and low-end client PCs, they'll have fewer IT needs.

The worrying aspect of cloud computing is cyber-security concern. With the dependency on cloud, questions have been raised about the protection from hackers.
The cloud network, has to be robust and attack-proof. No wonder Google and Facebook spend a fortune on plugging security leaks.

A lot of skeptics question the privacy of data uploaded on the internet. It is indeed hard to believe that our personal data can be safe on a remote drive, at an unknown location on the mercy of a single username and password among a million others.

But the flaws are not fatal, and cloud computing is here to stay. It’s the cornerstone of Web 2.0.