Everybody's Talking About Cloud Computing, Are You?
If you thought it was about having a laptop while in an airplane and flying through clouds, you need to read to this.
Basically, Cloud computing is any service or program sent over the Internet. Thus, an outside vendor provides software or hardware services to a business for a fee. This allows the business to avoid buying it themselves and dealing with problems. This allows them to focus on their own business. Some business's will keep track of customer information and provide backup storage services.
Cloud computing does not have many upfront costs for business's, costs range for $5 to 50 monthly for such technical services that any business online needs to deal with. Some vendors sell computing power to business. Already 230,000 small businesses use Cloud Computing. Businesses gain from this computing because they can downsize their staff they would normally have to monitor and fix IT issues if they hire an outside vendor. Some businesses can reduce expenses by 20% over a period of time. Some businesses feel that Cloud Computing, allowing outside third party vendors handle software or hardware issues, is like the difference in leasing a car and buying a car. In some cases, it IS cheaper to buy the hardware or software than to "cloud compute". The biz simply needs to analyze their own situation and cloud computing costs over time.
The best advice is to try out the vendor offering the services that interest you. Most of these vendors allow for a free trial.