CLOUD COMPUTING - KNOWLEDGE BASE

TOPIC:  TECH/CLOUD/IOT/

AUDIENCE/CLASS: 14-23 (Js3- 400level)

Cloud computing.

So what is the cloud? Some people say, it’s a collection of evaporated water in the atmosphere. That will be correct. But in ICT, when we speak of the cloud, we are talking about SERVERS.

Cloud computing is essentially carrying your computing activities directly on an external server other than your own local machine. This means there are different types of computing activities ranging from data processing, storage, computation, etc. There are a lot of benefits that come with cloud computing, including: Storage capability beyond your local machine. Security of of data. Use of Computing power such as processing, external to your local machine. Availability of your data anytime, anywhere.

The concept of cloud computing has brought about and seen in three different ypes namely: SaSs, SaP IaS. These three concepts aptly explain the various types of Cloud computing.

SaS. – Software of as a service allows a user to utilitize software services over the cloud. This means that you can directly run an application on the cloud without having to install the same on your local machine. This is useful especially if you do not meet the system requirements such as storage, processing power, etc. Google Provides a very useful Sas that allows you to run office applications even without installing the same on your local machine. All that is needed is an internet connection and a current/updated browser.

SaP -Sofware as a platform provides you a platform on which you can buld your own applications. This enables users to be the creators of the software and hence the providers. A good example is Facebooks Apps where users can develop apps that run on the facebook website and the facebook App itself.

Ias -  Infrastructure as a Service provides the entire infrastructure to the users and gives them a greater level and dept of control. Users can then build their own softwares and websites, and host them and others can build apps that would run on the website.

This simply means that cloud computing is not limited to storage alone, but to processing as well.

A lot of organisations are moving to the cloud, running their applications securely through a cloud provider. As usual, there are many vendors but chief among them is Google and Microsofts Azure.