Cloud Computing Defined
Wikipedia defines Cloud Computing as:
"The delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility (like the electricity grid) over a network (typically over the Internet)." In other words, you open a website page, log into your account, and access what you need. Faster, cheaper, and usually updated in real time, with no backups required.
It's easier to simply think of it for its solutions to common tasks. For example...
Using Google's email program, Gmail, is probably the widest use of personal cloud computing. Why is Gmail cloud computing? In the past, you were required to install a local program (i.e., installed on your desktop or laptop computer) like Outlook, launch it, and locally store all emails and preferences for your email.
Gmail is a much faster process, whereby you simply open a web page, log into your account, and voila! All of your stored emails are shown, as well as notifications for new emails. Another example of personal cloud computing is the use of Google Docs such as text documents, calendars, spreadsheets and presentations. Another great benefit of using these programs is that they are all provided free of charge by Google. Of course however, Google then gets the small benefit of delivering Google Ads to your emails and other interfaces... resulting in billions of dollars in revenue to Google. They're no dummies at Google.
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