Cloud Computing

Cloud computing started as a buzzword in 2007 when Dell tried to trademark the term. It has grown into being a very important computing trend that has grown exponentially with players such as Microsoft, Google, HP, Intel and Amazon all investing heavily in the future of the technology.

Cloud computing is the technology which allows your organisation to use software and services via the net, often seamlessly, and paying only for the time you use the service rather than having to invest in software that you might have very limited need for.

Most of us use cloud computing all day without even realizing it. Google is classified as a cloud service and every time you search for something via the Google search bar the request is communicated to one of the hundreds of thousands clustered PCs that they have the information stored on. Web based email works in the same way – your email is stored on a server “in the cloud” with you having no knowledge where the actual hardware is stored but yet you have a experience very similar to that which you would have if the software was running from your desktop.

Cloud computing is often on-demand as a pay as you go service or free with advertisements that are displayed and generate income for the host of the material. This saves the end-user significant costs on the licencing of the software and, because of the built in redundancy of the servers that the information is stored on, more peace of mind that there will be no downtime.

We are in the final stages now of choosing which cloud services we feel are feasible to offer with the current ADSL infrastructure and will continuously address this as new offerings become available.