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f a computer can exist without hardware,

as we learned in last month’s white paper

about virtual machines, can it be useful

without application soft ware? It can if it relies

on the concept of cloud computing.

Cloud computing describes a data-pro-

cessing infrastructure in which the applica-

tion soft ware—and oft en the data itself—is

stored permanently not on your PC but rather

a remote server that’s connected to the Inter-

net. When you need to use the application

or access the data, your computer connects

to the server through the Internet and some

of that information is cached temporarily on

your client machine. What do clouds have

to do with all this? The cloud is simply a

metaphor for the Internet, based on the sym-

bol that’s used to represent the worldwide

network in computer network diagrams.

The concept behind cloud computing

actually predates the modern Internet, but

the rise of personal computers rendered

the cloud irrelevant, at least temporarily. In

the 1960s and early 1970s, companies that

couldn’t aff ord to acquire and maintain the

large mainframe computers of the day would

instead rent processing time on someone

else’s machine. This time-sharing concept

fell out of favor as smaller, cheaper midrange

computers were released. And once

PCs and small servers began to domi-

nate the market, midrange systems

also lost their luster.

EVERYTHING OLD IS

NEW AGAIN

The growth of the Internet has rendered the

concept of shared computational infrastruc-

ture relevant once again. In fact, you’ve

probably used cloud-computing resources

without thinking much about it. If you’ve

ever made a blog using Blogger, created a

profi le on Facebook or MySpace, or used a

browser-based email service such as Gmail,

you’ve experienced cloud computing. In

each of these cases, the application and the

data you create with it are stored on a remote

server instead of your PC.

Software as a service (SaaS) products,

such as Google Apps (on a small scale) and

Salesforce.com (on a much larger scale),

are another example of cloud computing.

These services deliver software applications

through a web browser, as opposed to a

program that you install on your computer’s

hard drive. A hallmark of commercial cloud

computing applications such as these is that

users never purchase the software outright;

instead, they pay a subscription fee to make

use of it.

Google Apps Premier Edition ($50 per

year; the ad-supported Standard Edition

is free) is a soft ware suite consisting of two

broad segments: messaging (Gmail, Google

Calendar, and the instant-messaging service

Google Talk) and collaboration (Google Docs

for word processing, Google Video for sharing

video fi les, and Google Sites for sharing fi les,

developing blogs, and building intranets).

Salesforce.com is an enterprise customer

relationship management (CRM) application

that companies use to manage and track their

interactions with their customers.

Easy collaboration is one of the many ad-

vantages that cloud-computing services off er.

With both the application and the data stored

in the cloud, i.e., on the Internet, it’s easy for

multiple users to work together on the same

project. With Google Docs, for instance, sev-

eral users can open, share, and edit the same

document at the same time.

CLOUD COMPUTING AS

GIANT KILLER

In the corporate world, cloud computing

has made it possible for small companies to

compete on an even footing with competi-

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WHITE PAPER

R&D^

EXAMINING TECHNOLOGY AND PUTTING IT TO USE

Internet access at broadband speeds could render the notion of installing

application software on your PC entirely obsolete —MICHAEL BROWN

Cloud Computing

WHITE PAPER

Cloud Computing

WHITE PAPER

What’s in the Cloud

HOW IT WORKS

The cloud is a metaphor for the Internet, so cloud computing refers to a data-processing infrastruc-

ture in which a client machine taps the computational abilities of one or more remote computers via

the Internet. The remote computers are said to be “in the cloud.”

LOCAL CLIENT

SERVER AT REMOTE

DATA CENTER

INTERNET

(THE CLOUD)

THE CONCEPT BEHIND

CLOUD COMPUTING

ACTUALLY PREDATES

THE MODERN INTERNET.