Concept Popularization: What is cloud computing doing?

■ Google's "cloud computing" service: as long as you access the Internet, you can safely use the features installed on the "Cloud" without worrying about upgrading or maintaining them.

■ IBM's internal "cloud computing" attempt: allows more than 0.3 million employees to remotely use computing resources without buying additional devices.

■ "Cloud security" in the anti-virus industry: users do not have to install anti-virus software on a single computer, but use "Cloud" for anti-virus online, which is more effective and safer.

When I first heard of "cloud computing", it was really in the fog. I would like to ask a few experts and the answer I got is Yun. I have never liked professional interpretations, because some definitions, behind the wording of the harsh words, imply the lack of expression ability, if not confused. Therefore, for the concept of "cloud computing", do not think it is unfathomable. We can simply see its true nature in the fog.

Do you still remember diskless sites? It was a necessary facility for the securities business department many years ago. Computers that showed market prices all had no hard-disk workstations and would not store them, nor calculate them. They would only send service requests. Users do not need to know or care about the request to any place. Even if they request data from the cloud, all we need is market data. This is the simplified version of cloud computing. There are no common applications in users' computers, even operating systems, but there are a series of software and hardware that provide services to users somewhere, its service capabilities are like "Cloud" and far from the cloud. This is even a "cloud computing.

"Cloud computing" is a revolutionary measure, just like switching from the water intake mode of a digging well to the tap water supply mode. For most people, the computer is complex and even unpredictable. The performance improvement and software upgrade will never keep up with the application requirements. Therefore, the operation is always slow, the computer is always infected by viruses, and the computer capacity is always insufficient. People are always excited about the improvement of computer hardware performance. In fact, even the Moore's Law, which doubles computer processing power every 18 months, is just a statistical rule, no one can guarantee that it will always be effective, but it can ensure that limited hardware upgrades and unlimited application programs and even viruses are a long-term contradiction between system resource devouring. The conventional solution is insufficient. Therefore, only by optimizing the configuration of computing resources on the Internet can this conflict be solved. This is the original intention of "cloud computing.

A few years ago, Google started its "Cloud" program while working on an education program. This plan has brought many unexpected gains to Google, although it is not so easy to implement: on the one hand, external users use Google's internal computing resources to generate security issues; on the other hand, to program hundreds or more computers, designers need a fundamental revolution in the ideological dimension.

Google is the leader in the "cloud computing" field and is no longer afraid of Microsoft's anger. At the beginning of this year, they launched the "cloud computing" product, Google Apps software package, which is basically a simplified version of Microsoft Office, it must be used online. The use of Microsoft Office and GoogleApps is quite different: the former requires installation and maintenance, and the latter does not require installation. As long as you access the Internet, you can safely use the features installed on the cloud, you never have to worry about upgrade and maintenance.

IBM's "cloud computing" has attempted to allow more than 0.3 million employees to remotely use computing resources without buying additional devices. Google's "cloud computing" service relies entirely on the Internet, while IBM focuses on internal data centers. To achieve a more ambitious vision, IBM and Google are looking forward to integrating their respective advantageous technologies.

In fact, Microsoft does not pay much attention to "cloud computing", but its inherent advantages in this respect cannot be ignored. It would be a terrible force to provide Windows Live "cloud computing" services to hundreds of millions of Windows users over the Internet. In fact, Microsoft is trying to switch users from general device storage mode to network storage mode, in order to calculate Google in this field.

The anti-virus industry is also close to "cloud computing. Most people have had this experience. When computers do not have anti-virus software, it runs very fast. When anti-virus software is installed, the running speed slows down, although the security is guaranteed. In order to solve this problem, anti-virus vendors threw out the concept of "cloud security", first rising, followed by Trend Micro and Symantec, announcing the entry of network security into the cloud era. At present, hackers and viruses are rampant. "cloud security" allows users to use "Cloud" to eliminate the need to install anti-virus software on a single computer, which is more effective and safer.

If Google's "cloud vision" eventually becomes a reality, many of Microsoft's products are basically ineffective. At that time, as long as a personal computer is connected to the Internet using a module, everything can be done, the operating system or Office and other application software will become meaningless. Imagine if Google's conspiracy succeeds, it will integrate into a powerful platform. On this platform, all operating systems, all application software, and all game movies do not have to be installed on their own hard disks. Personal computers may return to the diskless era, A single account can request any service, and computing resources will become public facilities, just like water and electricity flowing into computers with low configurations.