Commentary: Shift happens: Cloud computing (and why you should care)

While most technologies advance the state of best practices incrementally, there are some advances that are genuine game changers.

These changes create a paradigm shift that rattles the accepted norms of how computing systems are created and deployed. Smart phones, 3G and cheap laptops have all changed the way we work each day. Now cloud computing seems poised to have a seismic impact on the perceptions and expectations of any individual or business using any sort of software.

While the entire scope of what comprises “cloud computing” is still a perfectly good subject for debate, there are some workable definitions that give it some shape. The National Institute of Standards and Technology defines cloud computing technologies as those sharing the common characteristics of (a) being on-demand services that (b) are available from anywhere, (c) achieve economies of scale through shared resource pools, (d) are scalable on demand according to the needs of the customer, and (e) are metered or subscription based services.

The cloud technologies break down into three primary delivery models: Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS).
Software-as-a-Service

SaaS applications form the “visible” outer edges of cloud computing. You’ve already used SaaS applications if you’ve used Google Docs or Gmail. Unlike traditional desktop applications that are installed on your computer, SaaS applications are delivered through a web browser and don’t have to be installed to use them. It doesn’t really matter where the web front-end and the supporting back-end services are, as long as they are available any time, from anywhere.

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Source: wislawjournal.com
By: Ron Phillips