subject: Discussing The Simple Question Of How Scalable Cloud Hosting Is [print this page] Cloud computing (CC) facilitates quick deployment and easy access to computer servers for web hosting and many other applications. Once users try it, they find it easy to answer: How flexible is cloud hosting? In a words, a cloud server is very flexible.
UK cloud hosting is essentially a cost-efficient method for users to quickly and cheaply get to use information technology (IT) resources. It makes these resources available on a leased or pay-as-you-use basis rather than outright purchase. Users therefore save the initial investment cost as well as the subsequent ongoing operating costs.
CC is aimed at allowing users to avoid buying the equipment themselves. The concept is particularly attractive in cases where users wish to access resources on an irregular basis and hence utilization will be too low to justify buying the resources.
Users access CC at three separate layers, namely, infrastructure, platform and application software. All three levels provide great convenience. Each of these levels is briefly discussed below.
Any computer desktop, notebook, tablet, mobile phone or other Web-enabled device connected to the Internet may be used to access applications and files through CC. Users may remotely perform word processing in the form of a report, press release or any other kind of Word.doc. They may remotely work an Excel workbook (spreadsheet). They may also remotely store and access MP3, still image (photography), moving image (videos), and bookmark files. They can play video games. All data is centrally stored, eliminating the need to carry a memory storage medium such as a USB flash drive or DVD. As an example, applications that connect to Internet-host email providers may be thought of as a form of CC, including web-based email services (such a Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo mail).
Next, on platform services, CC provides a facility to launch application software. This is a vital resource for software development and hence critical to software developers. CC services provide both a computing platform and a so-called solution stack. A computing platform is a general term that refers to a combination of hardware and software configuration. The two in combination allows the software to launch and run. A typical platform might include basic computer architecture, operating system, programming languages, related graphical user interfaces, and so on. For a user, this service facilitates the purchase and installation of applications without the additional cost and complexity of purchasing and operating any necessary hardware and software layers. The provision of computing platform services via the cloud is often called platform as a service (PaaS).
At its most basic, a platform is a place to launch and sustain software applications. It is a critical resource for the process of software development and hence software developers. CC services deliver the platform and solution stack. A computing platform is a generic term that includes the combination of some hardware configuration together with a software framework.
CC makes IT resources available to users like a utility. Online businesses like ours no longer need to make require large investments in hardware or supply the human expertise and expense to operate it. We no longer need to struggle with the cost of over-investing now to provide IT capacity for risky future growth which may not eventuate. With CC, clients can draw-on IT resources in the same way that consumers draw electricity from the main grid. Using servers for one hour via the cloud costs no more, on a unit basis, than using one server for 100 hours. CC appeals to many users that in the past have operated a conventional client-server computer network. With CC, clients may establish access to their own private cloud, that is, dedicated infrastructure that is operated exclusively for their own exclusive usage. This is a service targeted to businesses.
