What's cloud computing?

Cloud computing is one of the hottest terms nowadays.

However, there is no uniform standard for the exact definition of cloud computing.

In addition, according to Gartner's cloud computing technology maturity curve, cloud computing is at the "peak of high expectations ". This indicates that "cloud computing" has been fully expanded by the industry and seems to be omnipotent.

But what is the actual situation?

First, cloud computing is not omnipotent. Cloud computing was initially only used to increase the it roi and reduce the overall IT ownership cost. The flexibility of cloud computing itself can ensure that IT systems run more smoothly and reliably on the "Cloud. Therefore, not all problems can be solved by moving out of cloud computing.

Second, cloud computing is not a new technology. Cloud computing is an organic integration of existing technologies such as virtualization, cluster, grid computing, distributed computing, utility computing, and parallel computing.

Finally, cloud computing has developed into a new business model.

Wikipedia defines cloud computing:

Cloud computing is an Internet-based computing method in which shared hardware and software resources and information can be provided to computers and other devices as needed. The entire operation mode is similar to that of the power grid.

More technically, cloud computing uses virtualization to pool computing resources and uses various automatic and scalable resource allocation mechanisms, this allows computing resources to be provided to end users in the form of services to meet users' computing resource requirements at various levels. users do not need to pay attention to specific hardware, software, and platform details.

Currently, cloud computing includes three levels: IAAs (Infrastructure as a service), Paas (platform as a service), and SaaS (software as a service ).

IAAs virtualizes hardware resources and directly provides computing resources as services. For example, Amazon EC2.

PAAs provides a platform or a system for the public to perform software development and other operations. For example, Google App Engine.

SAAS directly releases the application software on the public network platform for end users. For example, Salesforce.

Amazon EC2 virtualizes various hardware resources in Amazon for external use. Users can purchase computing resources (such as CPU and memory) provided by EC2 based on their actual needs ).

Google's Gae exposes Google's basic framework on the public network. developers can develop various software on the platform based on the requirements of the corresponding Google framework and the APIS provided by Google, you can also directly publish your own applications to Gae.

Salefforce provides its own software as a service, allowing users to access applications on the Internet.

Therefore, cloud computing does not have a limited field. Cloud computing is a new business model and is currently in the development stage.

However, "pseudo cloud" does exist.