Previously we promised you a dissection of the cloud, and with good reason. Not only can the concept of cloud computing be confusing, so can all the cloud computing terms that go along with it!
In the aforementioned previous blog, I mentioned Microsoft Azure, so we’ll start there (no significance. I just needed a place to start).
The Wikipedia description: a cloud-computing platform and infrastructure for building, deploying, and managing applications and services through a global network of data centers.
- Cloud-computing platform: a thing in which computing power is made a utility. Rather than having a room full of servers or computers, a company purchases access from somebody else who does have a room full of infrastructure. For example, if you create a document in Google Drive instead of Microsoft Word, you are using the cloud. Most of the computing processes are happening somewhere else, but you get the result on your computer. That other place is the cloud.
- Building/Deploying/Managing Applications: creating and sending to other places and maintaining programs that perform specified functions.
- Data centers: a large group of networked computer servers typically used for the remote storage, processing, or distribution of large amounts of data.
More common jargon can be found below.
- Cloudsourcing: replacing traditional IT infrastructure with outsourced cloud operations.
- Cloud storage: sending data over the Internet to be stored by somebody else in the offsite storage units.
- Consumer cloud: personal cloud computing options (e.g. iCloud)
- External cloud: cloud services provided by a third party (not part of your organization)
- Hosted application: Internet based software that runs on a remote server.
- Internal cloud: cloud services provided within an organization.
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