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What Is the Cloud?

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What Is the Cloud?
The Cloud Explained
Greg May
Professor Stephen Savage
IT222 February 17, 2013

The Cloud Explained
The cloud is coming and it is coming fast. With technology everything is evolving and the cloud computing is the next evolution. Cloud computing will change the way companies do business and job descriptions of IT professionals everywhere. When the average person thinks of the cloud they probably think about services like Dropbox, Google Docs, iCLoud, etc. Although these are based in the cloud, the cloud is so much more than just a storage service. Most do not even realize it, but even Netflix is cloud based. The definition of the cloud according to Cloud Computing Bible “Cloud computing takes the technology, services, and applications that are similar to those on the Internet and turns them into a self-service utility,” Sosinsky, 2011.
The cloud is made up of 2 essential parts: Abstraction and Virtualization. “Abstraction: Cloud computing abstracts the details of system implementation from users and developers. Applications run on physical systems that are not specified, data is stored in locations that are unknown, administration of systems is outsourced to others, and access by users is ubiquitous. Virtualization: Cloud computing virtualizes systems by pooling and sharing resources. Systems and storage can be provisioned as needed from a centralized infrastructure, costs are assessed on a metered basis, multi-tenancy is enabled, and resources are scalable with agility.” (Sosinsky, 2011)
Amazon may be known by most for their online shopping, Amazon is also a big player in cloud computing. The most common service that is on the Amazon cloud is Netflix, among others that are commonly used are Pinterest, NASA, and Samsung. Amazon is currently host to 10% of the top 10,000 websites. Amazon recently had an outage on Christmas Eve that left Netlfix users without the ability to stream movies. The problem was traced back to load balancing. This is common



References: 1. Bort, J. (2011, November 11). To understand just how much the cloud will change the world, look at toyota read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/cloud-computing-toyota-motors-2012-11 2 3. Garling, C. (2013, January 4). Amazon dominant in the cloud services, too. Retrieved from http://www.sfgate.com/technology/article/Amazon-dominant-in-cloud-services-too-4168942.php 4 5. Rouse, M. (2012, February). What is community cloud. Retrieved from http://searchcloudstorage.techtarget.com/definition/community-cloud 6 7. Rouse, M. (2010, August). What is infrastructure as a service?. Retrieved from http://searchcloudcomputing.techtarget.com/definition/Infrastructure-as-a-Service-IaaS 8 9. Rouse, M. (2010, August). What is platform as a service?. Retrieved from http://searchcloudcomputing.techtarget.com/definition/Platform-as-a-Service-PaaS 10 11. Rouse, M. (2010, August). What is software a service?. Retrieved from http://searchcloudcomputing.techtarget.com/definition/Software-as-a-Service 12 13. Sosinsky, B. (2011). Cloud computing bible. John Wiley and Sons.

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