Introduction: Cloud computing is defined as a type of computing that relies on sharing computing

resources rather than having local servers or personal devices to handle applications. Cloud computing is
comparable to grid computing, a type of computing where unused processing cycles of all computers in
a network are harnesses to solve problems too intensive for any stand-alone machine.

In cloud computing, the word cloud (also phrased as "the cloud") is used as a metaphor for "the
Internet," so the phrase cloud computing means "a type of Internet-based computing," where different
services — such as servers, storage and applications — are delivered to an organization's computers and
devices through the Internet. What is the cloud? Where is the cloud? Are we in the cloud now? These
are all questions you've probably heard or even asked yourself. The term "cloud computing" is
everywhere.

In the simplest terms, cloud computing means storing and accessing data and programs over the
Internet instead of your computer's hard drive. The cloud is just a metaphor for the Internet. It goes
back to the days of flowcharts and presentations that would represent the gigantic server-farm
infrastructure of the Internet as nothing but a puffy, white cumulonimbus cloud, accepting connections
and doling out information as it floats.

What cloud computing is not about is your hard drive. When you store data or run programs from the
hard drive, that's called local storage and computing. Everything you need is physically close to you,
which means accessing your data is fast and easy, for that one computer, or others on the local network.
Working off your hard drive is how the computer industry functioned for decades; some would argue it's
still superior to cloud computing, for reasons I'll explain shortly.

The cloud is also not about having dedicated network attached storage (NAS) hardware or server in
residence. Storing data on a home or office network does not count as utilizing the cloud. (However,
some NAS will let you remotely access things over the Internet, and there's at least one NAS named "My
Cloud," just to keep things confusing.)

For it to be considered "cloud computing," you need to access your data or your programs over the
Internet, or at the very least, have that data synchronized with other information over the Web. In a big
business, you may know all there is to know about what's on the other side of the connection; as an
individual user, you may never have any idea what kind of massive data-processing is happening on the
other end. The end result is the same: with an online connection, cloud computing can be done
anywhere, anytime.

How Cloud Computing Works: Let's say you're an executive at a large corporation. Your particular
responsibilities include making sure that all of your employees have the right hardware and software
they need to do their jobs. Buying computers for everyone isn't enough -- you also have to purchase
software or software licenses to give employees the tools they require. Whenever you have a new hire,
you have to buy more software or make sure your current software license allows another user. It's so
stressful that you find it difficult to go to sleep on your huge pile of money every night.

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Soon, there may be an alternative for executives like you. Instead of installing a suite of software for
each computer, you'd only have to load one application. That application would allow workers to log
into a Web-based service which hosts all the programs the user would need for his or her job. Remote
machines owned by another company would run everything from e-mail to word processing to complex
data analysis programs. It's called cloud computing, and it could change the entire computer industry.

In a cloud computing system, there's a significant workload shift. Local computers no longer have to do
all the heavy lifting when it comes to running applications. The network of computers that make up the
cloud handles them instead. Hardware and software demands on the user's side decrease. The only
thing the user's computer needs to be able to run is the cloud computing system's interface software,
which can be as simple as a Web browser, and the cloud's network takes care of the rest.

There's a good chance you've already used some form of cloud computing. If you have an e-mail account
with a Web-based e-mail service like Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail or Gmail, then you've had some experience
with cloud computing. Instead of running an e-mail program on your computer, you log in to a Web e-
mail account remotely. The software and storage for your account doesn't exist on your computer -- it's
on the service's computer cloud.

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Services of Cloud Computing: The overall services of cloud computing are given below:

1. SaaS:

This types of cloud computing delivers a single application through the browser to thousands of
customers using a multitenant architecture. On the customer side, it means no upfront investment in
servers or software licensing; on the provider side, with just one app to maintain, costs are low
compared to conventional hosting. Salesforce.com is by far the best-known example among enterprise
applications, but SaaS is also common for HR apps and has even worked its way up the food chain to
ERP, with players such as Workday. And who could have predicted the sudden rise of SaaS "desktop"
applications, such as Google Apps and Zoho Office?

2. Utility computing:

The idea is not new, but this form of cloud computing is getting new life from Amazon.com, Sun, IBM,
and others who now offer storage and virtual servers that IT can access on demand. Early enterprise
adopters mainly use utility computing for supplemental, non-mission-critical needs, but one day, they
may replace parts of the datacenter. Other providers offer solutions that help IT create virtual
datacenters from commodity servers, such as 3Tera's AppLogic and Cohesive Flexible Technologies'
Elastic Server on Demand. Liquid Computing’s offers similar capabilities, enabling IT to stitch together
memory, I/O, storage, and computational capacity as a virtualized resource pool available over the
network.

3. Web services in the cloud:

Closely related to SaaS, Web service providers offer APIs that enable developers to exploit functionality
over the Internet, rather than delivering full-blown applications. They range from providers offering
discrete business services -- such as Strike Iron and Xignite -- to the full range of APIs offered by Google
Maps, ADP payroll processing, the U.S. Postal Service, Bloomberg, and even conventional credit card
processing services.

4. Platform as a service:

Another SaaS variation, this form of cloud computing delivers development environments as a service.
You build your own applications that run on the provider's infrastructure and are delivered to your users
via the Internet from the provider's servers. Like Legos, these services are constrained by the vendor's
design and capabilities, so you don't get complete freedom, but you do get predictability and pre-
integration. Prime examples include Salesforce.com's Force.com, cog head and the new Google App
Engine. For extremely lightweight development, cloud-based mashup platforms abound, such as Yahoo
Pipes or Dapper.net.

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5. MSP (managed service providers):

One of the oldest forms of cloud computing, a managed service is basically an application exposed to IT
rather than to end-users, such as a virus scanning service for e-mail or an application monitoring service
(which Mercury, among others, provides). Managed security services delivered by Secure Works, IBM,
and Verizon fall into this category, as do such cloud-based anti-spam services as Postini, recently
acquired by Google. Other offerings include desktop management services, such as those offered by
Center Beam or Ever dream.

6. Service commerce platforms:

A hybrid of SaaS and MSP, this cloud computing service offers a service hub that users interact with.
They're most common in trading environments, such as expense management systems that allow users
to order travel or secretarial services from a common platform that then coordinates the service
delivery and pricing within the specifications set by the user. Think of it as an automated service bureau.
Well-known examples include Rearden Commerce and Ariba.

7. Internet integration:

The integration of cloud-based services is in its early days. Source, which mainly concerns itself with
serving SaaS providers, recently introduced the Source Services Bus, which employs in-the-cloud
integration technology from a little startup called Boomi. SaaS provider Workday recently acquired
another player in this space, Cape Clear, an ESB (enterprise service bus) provider that was edging toward
b-to-b integration. Way ahead of its time, Grand Central -- which wanted to be a universal "bus in the
cloud" to connect SaaS providers and provide integrated solutions to customers -- flamed out in 2005.

Advantages of Cloud Computing: Cloud computing is now evolving like never before, with companies of
all shapes and sizes adapting to this new technology. Industry experts believe that this trend will only
continue to grow and develop even further in the coming few years. While cloud computing is
undoubtedly beneficial for mid-size to large companies, it is not without its downsides, especially for
smaller businesses. We now bring you a list of advantages of disadvantages of cloud computing, with a
view to helping such establishments fully understand the concept of cloud computing. The advantages
are given below:

1. Flexibility: The second a company needs more bandwidth than usual, a cloud-based service can
instantly meet the demand because of the vast capacity of the service’s remote servers. In fact,
this flexibility is so crucial that 65% of respondents to an InformationWeek survey said “the
ability to quickly meet business demands” was an important reason to move to cloud
computing.

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 2. Disaster recovery: When companies start relying on cloud-based services, they no longer need
complex disaster recovery plans. Cloud computing providers take care of most issues, and they
do it faster. Aberdeen Group found that businesses which used the cloud were able to resolve
issues in an average of 2.1 hours, nearly four times faster than businesses that didn’t use the
cloud (8 hours). The same study found that mid-sized businesses had the best recovery times of
all, taking almost half the time of larger companies to recover.

3. Automatic software updates: In 2010, UK companies spent 18 working days per month
managing on-site security alone. But cloud computing suppliers do the server maintenance –
including security updates –themselves, freeing up their customers’ time and resources for
other tasks.

4. Cap-Ex Free: Cloud computing services are typically pay as you go, so there’s no need for capital
expenditure at all. And because cloud computing is much faster to deploy, businesses have
minimal project start-up costs and predictable ongoing operating expenses.

5. Increased collaboration: Cloud computing increases collaboration by allowing all employees –

6. Work from anywhere: As long as employees have internet access, they can work from
anywhere. This flexibility positively affects knowledge workers' work-life balance and
productivity. One study found that 42% of working adults would give up some of their salary if
they could telecommute, and on average they would take a 6% pay cut.

7. Document control: According to one study, "73% of knowledge workers collaborate with people
in different time zones and regions at least monthly”. If a company doesn’t use the cloud,
workers have to send files back and forth over email, meaning only one person can work on a
file at a time and the same document has tones of names and formats. Cloud computing keeps
all the files in one central location, and everyone works off of one central copy. Employees can
even chat to each other whilst making changes together. This whole process makes
collaboration stronger, which increases efficiency and improves a company’s bottom line.

8. Security: Some 800,000 laptops are lost each year in airports alone. This can have some serious
monetary implications, but when everything is stored in the cloud, data can still be accessed no
matter what happens to a machine.

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 9. Competitiveness: The cloud grants SMEs access to enterprise-class technology. It also allows
smaller businesses to act faster than big, established competitors. A study on disaster recovery
eventually concluded that companies that didn’t use the cloud had to rely on tape backup
methods and complicated procedures to recover.

10. Environmentally friendly: Businesses using cloud computing only use the server space they
need, which decreases their carbon footprint. Using the cloud results in at least 30% less energy
consumption and carbon emissions than using on-site servers. And again, SMEs get the most
benefit: for small companies, the cut in energy use and carbon emissions is likely to be 90%.

We bring you a list of the 7 best cloud service providers of 2013:

1. Amazon: The top favorite among CSPs was, quite unsurprisingly, Amazon. Amazon offers a vast
spectrum of cloud services with its infrastructure, called Amazon Web Services. This includes
offering such as EC2 compute, S3 storage and so on. Offering APIs that are easy to understand
and use, this CSP has consistently won the hearts of its users. The best thing about this company
is that it is consumer-focused and constantly looks at the costs of its services, trying to find ways
and means to deliver its products at reasonable rates.

2. Google: Google is yet another cloud provider which has found its way right to the top of the
heap. Offering several features and functionality, the search giant’s Compute Engine (GCE)
forms the very essence of its cloud services. What GCE lacks in a management console, it makes
up in speed. The company is now focusing on enhancing its current services even more by
constantly improving upon its offerings. The giant is additionally providing App Engine, a
reasonably-priced PaaS, which helps developers create applications on top of it.

3. Microsoft: Yet another top contender, again unsurprisingly, is Microsoft, which is now emerging
as a formidable CSP. The company is unique, since it uses the selfsame infrastructure software
for running apps on premise or in the cloud. This provider supports the hybrid cloud
environment, tying up public and private clouds. Microsoft additional provides Windows Azure,
its own PaaS offering.

4. Rackspace: Rackspace has remained one of the foremost CSPs since the last many years.
Offering open standard, unique tools and enterprise-grade support, the company makes IaaS a
much easier concept for business establishments to understand and use. Constantly upgrading
existing technology to allow further enhancements, this company offers fast, secure and reliable
services at reasonable costs. Offering a combination of commodity hardware, open systems and
unparalleled support, Rackspace could be considered as a sort of holistic cloud provider,
including within its gamut everything that an enterprise could ever ask for.

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 5. JustCloud: JustCloud, a relatively new CSP as compared with the above companies, has made it
to the top provider list this year. Starting off in a rather humble way, this company now offers a
range of features, such as file storage, file sync with multiple systems and backup scheduling
and so on, at reasonable, affordable, rates. Offering unlimited storage, this provider includes
both free and paid service packages.

6. SugarSync: As the name suggests, sugar Sync basically provides file sync and file sharing services.
This provider offers 5GB of free storage space. You can switch to a paid package if you need
more space. Synching files is fast, secure and reliable and customer support is good too. While
the pricing packages are more or less standard, users who refer the provider to their friends and
contacts could well get some nice discounts on their own paid packages.

7. SpiderOak: One of the most secure cloud providers, SpiderOak enables users to protect their
data with encryption, so as to prevent unauthorized access of the same. Offering file sharing and
sync, this company offers you value for money. Additionally, SpiderOak Hive allows users to sync
their data across multiple mobile devices as well.

Cloud System on Smart Phone: By the help of cloud system you can connect your smart phone with
your other electronic device like; Tablet, Laptop, Computer etc. By connecting with cloud system you
need not necessary to increase the volume of ram on your smart phone. Because cloud will keep the entire
document on its own memory and you can access them in any time form anywhere. Here we have given
an example how cloud system becomes most key issue to make them success in their market place.

In 2005, Nokia was the dominant player in the mobile phone market with was no end in sight. Today,
Nokia is being sold off in pieces and it's hard to see what could possibly topple Samsung and Apple. But
Dr. Ronald Klingebiel, a professor at Warwick Business School, says that neither company is safe. A new
crop of "cloud" smartphone operating systems are in the works and they offer these advantages:

 Tons of apps: Apps would be written for the cloud, not a particular phone, similar to how PC
cloud apps run in the browser on any PC like Windows, Macs or Linux.

 Affordable phones: when the app runs in the cloud, the phones wouldn't need fast processors or a
lot of memory, which would make them cheaper to produce.

Today, each of these new devices seems like a longshot: Samsung's Tizen, Firefox OS, the Ubuntu Edge,
Sailfish OS but Klingebiel says that, collectively, they could peel away a lot of market share.

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Disadvantages of Cloud Computing: As made clear from the above, cloud computing is a tool that offers
enormous benefits to its adopters. However, being a tool, it also comes with its set of problems and
inefficiencies. Let’s address the most significant ones.

1. Security and privacy in the Cloud: Security is the biggest concern when it comes to cloud
computing. By leveraging a remote cloud based infrastructure, a company essentially gives away
private data and information, things that might be sensitive and confidential. It is then up to the
cloud service provider to manage, protect and retain them, thus the provider’s reliability is very
critical. A company’s existence might be put in jeopardy, so all possible alternatives should be
explored before a decision. On the same note, even end users might feel uncomfortable
surrendering their data to a third party. Similarly, privacy in the cloud is another huge issue.
Companies and users have to trust their cloud service vendors that they will protect their data
from unauthorized users. The various stories of data loss and password leakage in the media do
not help to reassure some of the most concerned users.

2. Dependency and vendor lock-in: One of the major disadvantages of cloud computing is the
implicit dependency on the provider. This is what the industry calls “vendor lock-in” since it is
difficult, and sometimes impossible, to migrate from a provider once you have rolled with him. If
a user wishes to switch to some other provider, then it can be really painful and cumbersome to
transfer huge data from the old provider to the new one. This is another reason why you should
carefully and thoroughly contemplate all options when picking a vendor.

3. Technical Difficulties and Downtime: Certainly the smaller business will enjoy not having to deal
with the daily technical issues and will prefer handing those to an established IT company;
however you should keep in mind that all systems might face dysfunctions from time to time.
Outage and downtime is possible even to the best cloud service providers, as the past has
shown. Additionally, you should remember that the whole setup is dependent on internet
access, thus any network or connectivity problems will render the setup useless. As a minor
detail, also keep in mind that it might take several minutes for the cloud to detect a server fault
and launch a new instance from an image snapshot.

4. Limited control and flexibility: Since the applications and services run on remote, third party
virtual environments, companies and users have limited control over the function and execution
of the hardware and software. Moreover, since remote software is being used, it usually lacks
the features of an application running locally.

5. Increased Vulnerability: Related to the security and privacy mentioned before, note that cloud
based solutions are exposed on the public internet and are thus a more vulnerable target for
malicious users and hackers. Nothing on the Internet is completely secured and even the biggest
players suffer from serious attacks and security breaches.

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Conclusion: Like everything else, cloud computing too has its pros and cons. While the technology can
prove to be a great asset to your company, it could also cause harm if not understood and used
properly. Despite its disadvantages and the fact that it is still in an infant age, cloud computing remains
strong and has great potential for the future. Its user base grows constantly and more big players are
attracted to it, offering better and fine-tuned services and solutions. We can only hope that the
advantages will further grow and the disadvantages will be mitigated, since cloud computing seems to
have made IT a little bit easier. Happy cloud computing!

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