A Cloud With A Silver Lining
Like a storm cloud on the horizon, it eased up on us, catching us unawares. One moment, the sun is shining, the next, it is raining cats and dogs. Cloud computing is doing that very same thing. There was no weather report, just the cloud on the horizon. Until it began to drizzle, almost no one noticed. For a while, it was partly cloudy. Our email and other Yahoo and Google applications were a cloud slipping quietly through the sky. We used these services on the cloud and no one noticed. Then it began to rain lightly with Google Docs, a word processor with share capabilities. Just like the cloud on the horizon that quietly grew until it began to rain. Umbrellas came out and people took notice. Now, with more apps and services being offered sans downloads and licenses, everyone is asking the same question; what is the cloud and where did it come from?
Almost No One Noticed
The fact is that the cloud has always been there, floating around until someone realized the potential. A dictionary will tell you that the definition of cloud computing is as follows.
- Cloud Computing: Internet-based computing in which large groups of servers are networked so as to allow sharing of data-processing tasks, centralized data storage, and online access to computer services or resources.
What It Means For Us
What does this mean for the millions of rain-soaked people who would not know a server from a cirrus cloud? Simply put, good things are on the horizon. Imagine having access to applications that we used to have to purchase and download to our hard drives. SaaS (Software as a Service) will be available to multiple internet ready devices from “the cloud” without space-eating downloads. With the cloud and IaaS, (Infrastructure as a service) offering the public at large storage, load balancers, firewalls and the like, we will not have to worry about where it comes from or how to get it.
Small Businesses Benefit Big
PaaS (Platform as a service) has and will change the internet into a webhosting dream for end-users as individuals and businesses this includes application, development, and design. This means complete application hosting with far reaching integrated services (with scalability, versioning, and maintenance). For small to medium sized business, no more keeping track of dozens or even hundreds of licenses, multiple downloads or patches and millions of dollars in IT labor. For the first time, small to midsized companies will be able to compete with the big boys. The sky is literally the limit.
Marc Benioff Noticed
Fortunately, someone did notice the cloud on the horizon and that intuitive man is Marc R. Benioff. He not only noticed, he co-founded Salesforce.com in his apartment in 1999, survived the .com disaster of 2001 and is now number seven on the wired 40. Winner of multiple awards, like the Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation award, Marc Benioff rode the cloud to Billionaire-dom and opened to skies for the rest of us to reap the benefits of what will quite likely be the future of all that is the internet for the next century. It turns out that the cloud on the horizon has a silver lining.
About Ali Gajani
Hi. I am Ali Gajani. I started Mr. Geek in early 2012 as a result of my growing enthusiasm and passion for technology. I love sharing my knowledge and helping out the community by creating useful, engaging and compelling content. If you want to write for Mr. Geek, just PM me on my Facebook profile.
