In the last few years we hear about more and more companies that provides Cloud Computing services like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, IBM and more. But what is it exactly, what are its good things, its bad things and how can you use it for your online business?

The Cloud

To understand the concept of cloud computing, we need to understand first the “cloud”. This is an imagery for the internet which is a fog screen between us and the virtual world. All we want is to click on buttons and receive back content, we don’t know (and don’t care) where it’s physically located and we don’t know its path, we just want to receive it from the “cloud”…

Although the internet is advancing in giant steps, the computers world is still stuck in a very unclouded stage. Instead of concentrating on contents, what really is important, We are occupied with gigahertz and gigabytes, in parameters of hard disc memory and other hardware.

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is in fact an expansion of the internet (the cloud), so it won’t include only content but also computing force. Powerful computers all over the world will make our calculations and store our data instead of our personal (“weak”) computer. We receive all of our computing services from a source outside of our home or business (or home business…) and we will pay only when we use it. The best comparison is the electricity network- We are always connected, but we pay only on what we spent.

Why Is It Good?

Cloud computing has obvious advantages over the current state. The race against hardware will stop or at least reduced, all we would need is a very simple computer with an internet connection. It would be much more mobile, light and more important, much more cheaper. Even if our computer will break down and damaged, it wouldn’t make much harm, because the important data is not in it, it’s in the cloud.

We can run any software we like without thinking too much on its hardware requirements, The cloud would provide tremendous abilities. Organizations won’t need to maintain their own computers and servers of their own.

Why Is It Bad?

The biggest problem of cloud computing is it’s centralization. The user is totally dependable on internet connection. Also, it is easier to hurt infrastructures (By mistake or by malice): Hurting one servers farm can cause much more damage than hurting personal computers.

Of course there are also security problems- If some hacker would break into some cloud server, much more information will be exposed than hacking into a specific company server.

How To Use It For Your Online Business

I guess that throughout this article, many ideas came up in your head. Let me help you develop your thoughts: Cloud computing gives you the possibility to work at home even when your are not, well, at home… What i mean is that you can save on the cloud important documents, tools, codes, articles or any other thing you need for your work.

It is also great for backing up your important files and even your whole website just in case something happened.