Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is a modern technology model for enabling convenient network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources such as networks, servers, storage, applications and etc that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort.

         One of the benefits of cloud computing is that it does not require a user to be in a specific place to gain access to it and thus, it is convenient to be used in any places. As for companies, set up cost is almost zero because all the expenses that the company would have incurred do not exist. 

For examples, cloud computing allows them to reduce the cost of information management since they are not required to own their own servers and can use capacity leased from third parties. There will be no hardware purchases for servers and spending on labour man. Besides that, since such cloud computing applications can be accessed from anywhere and at any time, it would be easier to collaborate with employees who are not in the same country and makes it easier to manage a global workforce.

          However, there are some drawbacks which arise in accordance the cloud computing technology. Although it is true that there is no upfront cost to many cloud computing applications, there are other ‘soft’ cost that cannot be ignored and the server do have an ongoing monthly subscription to pay. Moreover, the limitations for mobile cloud computing with wireless carriers are not totally reliable while offices and homes are fine so it is quite unstable for those who use cloud applications through mobile. 

Meanwhile, the loss of data and the risk of unauthorized access have cause cloud computing lack in security as the data is important to any business and organization. For examples, as cloud computing is about keep data on a web based, when it comes to security of data in a country, the country won’t be able to risk even a little of the confidential data within a country such as citizenship and monetary banking records to be exposed to computer crimes likes hacking.

          As a summary, there are no exact ways to measure whether cloud computing bring more harm than good or vice versa.

Related link:

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Cloud-Computing/Deploying-OpenSource-Cloud-Systems-5-Pros-and-5-Cons-295321/