What Is Cloud Computing?

What is cloud computing? It's the hot topic in the technology world... and increasingly many people in the business world are asking the same question, "What is cloud computing, and how can it benefit my business?"

More and more businesses are relying on cloud computing and moving their core software infrastructure 'into the cloud', but why? Just what is 'the cloud', and what are the unique benefits cloud computing architecture offers over traditional models, especially in the current economic climate? If you are asking these questions then let's read on and explore cloud computing and how it can dramatically impact the most important areas to IT, such as infrastructure investments, security, business application development, and more.

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If you ask your IT department where most of their time is spent you'll likely hear responses including : dealing with software implementation, ongoing maintenance, and upgrades to projects that add costs rather than returns. IT departments are turning more and more to cloud computing technology to reduce time spent on lower-value tasks, refocusing more time and energy to strategic activities which have a larger impact on the business.

The CIOs of many of the world's largest businesses have been won over by the fundamental benefits of cloud computing infrastructure- despite initial skepticism, these executives are not looking back after experiencing for themselves the many benefits cloud computing technology offers.

  • Proven Web-services integration. Cloud computing technology is much faster and easier to integrate with other enterprise software applications (both traditional software and other cloud-based applications), whether third-party or custom-designed.
  • World-class service delivery. Greater scalability, complete disaster recovery and fantastic uptime numbers are key features of the cloud computing model.
  • No hardware or software installations: 100% cloud computing infrastructure. The true beauty of cloud computing technology lies in its simplicity... cloud computing requires significantly lower capital expenditure to use and maintain.
  • Faster and lower-risk deployment. As well as lower set-up costs, set-up time is also dramatically reduced with a cloud computing infrastructure. Say goodbye to waiting months or years and laying out millions of pounds in beofer the first login happens. It takes only a matter of months (sometimes weeks) for your cloud computing technology applications to go live, even if your application requires extensive customisation or complex integration.
  • Support for deep customisations. There is an urban myth amongst some IT professionals that cloud computing technology cannot be easily customised, and that cloud computing is not yet ready for for complex enterprises. With cloud computing infrastructure you are not only able to deeply customise and configure applications; you can also preserve all the customisations you make, even during upgrades. And that's not all, cloud computing technology provides an excellent platform for ongoing development needs as your organisation evolves.
  • Empowered business users. Cloud computing technology allows real-time point-and-click customisation and instant generation of reports for business users. This means the IT department can apply its time to strategic initiatives rather than applying unnecessary resources making minor changes and running ad hoc reports.
  • Automatic upgrades that don't impact IT resources. Utilising cloud computing platforms puts an end to the IT dilemma facing most companies: If we upgrade our applications, we'll also have to rebuild all our customisations and software integrations. Cloud computing technology allows you to upgrade and preserve all your previous efforts, because all customisations and previous integration is automatically preserved when each upgrade takes place.
  • Pre-built, pre-integrated applications for cloud computing technology. The Force.com AppExchange features hundreds of applications designed for cloud computing infrastructure, pre-integrated with your Salesforce CRM application or any other application developed on Force.com.

What's the Value of a Cloud Computing Infrastructure?

The value of a cloud computing infrastructure and salesforce.com's Force.com platform have won over the Chief Information Officers of some of the world's largest companies. These forward-thinking (yet always security-aware) technical executives thoroughly analysed Force.com and appreciated the benefits cloud computing technology offers.

Salesforce.com frees businesses from the negative traits of traditional software, with its hidden costs, significant failure rates, unacceptable risks, and protracted delays with implementation. At the same time, a cloud computing infrastructure provides a comprehensive, flexible platform that meets the needs of companies of every size, from the world's largest enterprises to small and medium-sized businesses across the world.

Salesforce.com will minimise the risks inherent in application development and implementation. Technology is a means to solving your business problems, not creating more difficulties. With salesforce.com and the Force.com cloud computing technology, you will have the freedom to devote more time and effort into solving strategic problems, rather than worrying about infrastructure requirements, IT maintenance work, and upgrades.

The cloud computing infrastructure also delivers remarkable savings in administrative costs-more than 50 percent when compared to client/server software. Cloud computing saves administrative costs include in these areas:

  • Basic customisation. The Force.com cloud computing technology's point-and-click tools grant the power to administrators and business users to carry out basic customisation tasks in-house.
  • Real-time reporting. Easy-to-follow wizards take users through reports and dashboard creation, freeing up demand on IT to create reports.
  • Security and sharing models. Sensitive data is protected by the sharing model which is integrated into the Force.com cloud computing infrastructure; at the same time cutting back the time spent of managing security profiles.
  • Multiple languages and currencies. Support for 13 languages and all world currencies are built in, making the management a global application easier.

It's no surprise that so many companies are being restructured around a cloud computing infrastructure.

Cloud Computing Technology & Application Development

Cloud computing technology is the catalyst for wide scale change in the application development sector. In the same way that technology transformed the printing industry - enabling us to access all the information we need online, rather than taking on complex library research - the move to a cloud computing infrastructure for application development is making it easy to build robust, enterprise-class applications, quickly and with relatively low costs.

The Force.com platform ushers in a new generation of applications that allow your whole company to benefit from the power and success of Salesforce CRM - it's not just limited to the sales, service, and marketing departments. New innovations of application development are now achievable through combining the use of "no programming" point-and-click wizards, toolkits for the most used development languages to create client-side applications, and Apex Code, the programming language of salesforce.com, for our Force.com platform. Developers gain a number of advantages from their applications being run natively on Force.com, namely:

  • Cloud computing technology users enjoy all the benefits of multitenancy, including built-in security for peace of mind, excellent reliability levels, upgradeability, and ease of use.
  • Out-of-the-box features include analytics, offline access, and mobile deployment speed application development.
  • There's no need further worries about managing and maintaining server infrastructures, even if applications scale to thousands of users.
  • You can also become a member of a community of thousands of application developers who are also focused on business application development for cloud computing infrastructures.
  • The Force.com AppExchange marketplace provides an outlet for all your business application development requirements and grants access to tens of thousands of salesforce.com customers.

By eradicating the problems associated with traditional application development, cloud computing technology frees you to concentrate on developing business applications that are capable of delivering true value to your business (or your customers). The Force.com platform lets IT departments innovate while avoiding the inevitable costs and headaches associated with managing servers, multiple software solutions, middleware or point-to-point connections, software and hardware upgrades-and the workforce required to manage it all.

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What is cloud computing?

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Everyone is talking about “the cloud.” But what does it mean?

Business applications are moving to the cloud. It’s not just a fad—the shift from traditional software models to the Internet has steadily gained momentum over the last 10 years. Looking ahead, the next decade of cloud computing promises new ways to collaborate everywhere, through mobile devices.

Life before cloud computing

Traditional business applications have always been very complicated and expensive. The amount and variety of hardware and software required to run them are daunting. You need a whole team of experts to install, configure, test, run, secure, and update them.

When you multiply this effort across dozens or hundreds of apps, it’s easy to see why the biggest companies with the best IT departments aren’t getting the apps they need. Small and mid-sized businesses don’t stand a chance.

Cloud computing: a better way

With cloud computing, you eliminate those headaches because you’re not managing hardware and software—that’s the responsibility of an experienced vendor like salesforce.com. The shared infrastructure means it works like a utility: You only pay for what you need, upgrades are automatic, and scaling up or down is easy.

Cloud-based apps can be up and running in days or weeks, and they cost less. With a cloud app, you just open a browser, log in, customize the app, and start using it.

Businesses are running all kinds of apps in the cloud, like customer relationship management (CRM), HR, accounting, and much more. Some of the world’s largest companies moved their applications to the cloud with salesforce.com after rigorously testing the security and reliability of our infrastructure.

As cloud computing grows in popularity, thousands of companies are simply rebranding their non-cloud products and services as “cloud computing.” Always dig deeper when evaluating cloud offerings and keep in mind that if you have to buy and manage hardware and software, what you’re looking at isn’t really cloud computing but a false cloud.

Cloud 2: Mobility and collaboration

The latest innovations in cloud computing are making our business applications even more mobile and collaborative, similar to popular consumer apps like Facebook and Twitter. As consumers, we now expect that the information we care about will be pushed to us in real time, and business applications in the cloud are heading in that direction as well. With Cloud 2, keeping up with your work is as easy as keeping up with your personal life on Facebook.

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