Future Of Cloud Computing

The term cloud represents the internet. Cloud computing is a term that is being used today to describe the act of storing, accessing, and sharing data, applications, and computing power in cyberspace. The concepts of storing data in the remote locations or renting the use of tools only when you need them are not new, but the positives of cloud computing present users with unprecedented opportunities.

A research survey conducted in the year 2008 reported that most of the educated people had either stored data online or used web based software applications at least once. Some of the ways in which many people are already working in the cloud every day include, for example, using a Gmail account for email, storing Firefox or Google browser bookmarks online, sharing friendships in cyberspace on social networks like Facebook, storing personal videos and photos on YouTube and Flickr, and maintaining a blog on WordPress. Cloud computing technology can allow people to easily take advantage of larger amounts of storage and computing power. This technology also offers easy access to the centrally located information reachable through any compatible device a user wishes to implement; cloud can provide a backup to locally stored data; and allows people to easily share their data with others.

Day by day cloud is becoming more and more reliable and secure, as an ever increasing number of people are putting their information under the control of strangers in remote location. This shows that trust in the cloud services is increasing rapidly as cloud hosting services are becoming more and more consumer centered. Many consumer oriented and business applications, such as, Drake tax software, ATX tax software, ProSeries tax software, Lacerte tax software, QuickBooks accounting software, Peachtree accounting software, Fishbowl Inventory management software, eBridge solution /eBridge software, SourceLink document management software, ACT! CRM software, Windows Server, MS SQL Server, MS Project, MS Office Server, MS Exchange Server, MS SharePoint Server, etc. are already being hosted on the cloud servers.

According to the experts, cloud computing will continue to expand and dominate users’ information transactions because it offers many advantages, allowing users to have easy instant and individualized access to tools and information they need, wherever they are, locatable from any networked device. The Web browser, which is by far the most possible PC application, acts as a cloud interface, and cloud services like Facebook are the most popular cloud computing services, whether accessed via personal computers, laptops, netbooks, or smartphones. For consumers, the cloud revolution has already begun. In the near future, experts have predicted that almost all people will do their work on ‘the screens connected to the web,’ and there would not be any sort of ‘desktop or local computer’ anymore.

The cloud computing technology has made it easier for individuals to have access to their data, applications, and tools from anywhere and at anytime. This ubiquitous functionality will force mass scale migration from desktops or personal computers to the cloud. This will bring smart machines in market with no special software requirement, no excessive random access memory or RAM, and no heavy hard disks /data storage apace. These machines would just be a simple machine with an internet browser.

SaaS (Software as a Service) cloud computing has already emerged and is the future of the software. A software program consists, on the gross level, of code and data. Software as a service or SaaS or on-demand software is a cloud computing based software delivery model in which a software program and its associated data are hosted centrally in the cloud server. As both the data and code are in the cloud, both of them are typically accessed by users using a thin client having a web browser and Internet connectivity. What is left for the desktop is to act as a convenient, customizable, and simple interface.