The idea of cloud computing appeared back in 1960 when John McCarthy suggested that someday computer calculations will be performed using “public tools”. It is believed that the ideology of cloud computing has gained popularity since 2007 due to the rapid development of communication channels and the rapidly growing needs of users.
Cloud computing or the term "cloud processing” usually means providing the highest quality Internet Services to users with computing devices. Thus, computing devices are provided to the user in a “pure” form, and the user may not know which computers are processing his requests, what operating system is running under, and so on?
Often clouds are compared to mainframes, finding much in common between them. The fundamental difference between the cloud and the mainframe is that its computational power is theoretically unlimited. The second fundamental difference is that to put it simply, the terminals for mainframes served only for interactive user interaction with the task launched for processing. In the cloud, the terminal itself is a powerful computing device that can not only accumulate intermediate information but also directly manage the global system of computing resources.
Among the previously emerging (in the 1990s) data processing technologies, the so-called grid-calculations have become widespread. This area was initially viewed as an opportunity to use free processor resources and develop a system of voluntary leasing of computing power. A number of projects (GIMPS, distributed.net, SETI @ home) have proven that such a computing model is quite effective. Today, this technology is used to solve scientific, mathematical problems that require significant computational resources. We everybody knows about the uses of grid computing for commercial purposes. For example, with their help, some labor-intensive tasks related to economic forecasting, seismic data analysis, development and study of the properties of vaccines and new drugs are performed. Really, Grid computing and clouds have many similarities in architecture and applied principles. Nevertheless, the cloud computing model is considered to be more promising today due to a much more flexible platform for working with remote computing resources.
At present, large computing clouds consist of thousands of servers located in data processing centers (DPCs). They are providing adequate resources for thousands of applications that are concurrently used by millions of users. Cloud technologies are a convenient tool for businesses that are too expensive to own their own ERP, CRM or other servers that require the acquisition and configuration of additional equipment. Managed IT Support Services will assist you regarding all these factors.
ERP ( Enterprise Resource Planning - enterprise resource planning) - an organizational strategy for the integration of production and operations, human resource management, financial management, and asset management, focused on continuous balancing and optimization of enterprise resources through a specialized integrated application software package that provides a common data and process model for all areas of the enterprise.
CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is a customer relationship management system, and this application software designed to automate customer interaction strategies (customers), in particular, to increase sales, optimize marketing and improve customer service by storing customer information and history of relationships with them, establishing and improving business procedures and subsequent analysis of the results. You can know more details from IT Support West Midlands.
Among private users, cloud services such as those provided by Google (Documents, Calendar, etc.) are gradually becoming widely used due to their convenience.
The reasons for the growing popularity of cloud technologies are clear; the possibilities of their use are very diverse and allow saving both on maintenance and personnel, and on infrastructure. During sorting information and processing data in any remote data centers any hardware can be significantly simplified. All these problems are almost entirely shifted to the Managed IT Support Service Provider.
In addition, this approach allows you to standardize software, even if different operating systems are installed on enterprise computers (Windows, Linux, MacOS, etc.). Cloud technologies facilitate the provision of access to company data for both clients and their own employees who are out of the office, but who have the ability to connect via the Internet.
There is no doubt about the convenient use of cloud computing. The main disadvantage that can be immediately noticed is the complete dependence on the provider of these services. In fact, the enterprise (user) is held hostage by the managed IT Companies in Birmingham Provider and the Internet access provider like IT Support West Midlands. Although the reliability of cloud computing providers is increasing, to ensure the reliability and security of data, it is necessary to put a lot of effort, for example, to have duplicate communication channels, duplicating the power to be able to switch to them and, of course, think about information availability and security. In addition, cloud computing is absolutely not suitable for enterprises related to state and military secrets.