What is The Cloud and What Does it Mean for My Business?

The Cloud

A specific definition for “the cloud” is the cause of much controversy on blogs, in popular tech publications and even within my own office. The prevalent definition is based on the fact that clouds are constantly changing, much like the Internet itself. Whatever your definition may be, “the cloud” certainly encompasses many different technologies. A few of these include cloud computing and cloud web hosting.

Cloud Computing

What is it? Cloud computing can be many things, but it is most accurately described as a network of computers with a centralized load balancer that constantly analyzes where resources (CPU and RAM) are available. The load balancer then distributes those resources to fulfill the needs of whatever program or calculation that is being executed. This ensures that the resources of each individual computer are fully utilized. Cloud computing also prevents total system failure if a component of the system fails. A great example of this is the Stanford Protein Folding Project.

What does it do? Cloud computing was invented so that a complex computer system could be be self healing and self optimizing to maximize equipment usage. Applications running on the cloud computing model do not require additional programming to function across multiple machines because the “cloud” acts as one machine.

Is it useful? Cloud computing is popular for research projects and large scale software or application development as they can be incredibly resource intensive. By using the cloud computing model for development and research projects, it is ensured that resources are available and distributed as needed. Cloud computing really is brilliant for its intended use.

Cloud Hosting

What is it? Cloud hosting was developed years ago and in certain ways mimics cloud computing. It is a type of web hosting that has a load balancer to determine how much CPU and other resources each customer will need. It then allocates these resources on an on-demand basis from the web hosting provider’s server farm. Users then only pay for what they use.

What does it do? Cloud hosting can host websites, but is really built to be a scalable virtual environment for resource intensive application development.

Is it useful? Cloud hosting is very useful if you are developing an API (application programming interface) or anything that requires large amounts of CPU or other resources. Examples of this include:

• If you need to upload thousands of images, resize them, and deploy them on a web site similar to iStock Photo.

• If you have a project that requires thousands of calculations without a time constraint.

What Does This All Mean For My Business?

Most businesses will not need to be part of a cloud computing network as they just don’t require the resources that the network provides. However if your business does rely on resource intensive application development, a cloud hosting platform may be an excellent option for you. If cost is a concern, keep in mind that the more resources you use the more you will pay. Also, remember that many cloud web hosting solutions do not include “stateful storage,” meaning you cannot store applications on your server space. Instead you may upload and run them, but once that is completed the cloud will wipe it clean in order to provide resources for other users who may need them.

For a typical small or medium business website, stateful storage is necessary. Some cloud hosting will have storage, but it is important to know where, geographically, your web site is going to be. In some cases, the “cloud” might actually be on the other side of the world! This will lead to slow uploads and downloads. This is obviously not something you want to deal with for your website. Look for storage/hosting geographically close to you.