Cloud Computing

Cloud computing means using multiple server computers via a digital network, as though they were one computer. Often, the services available are considered part of cloud computing.

Traditionally, without a cloud, a web server runs as a single computer or a group of privately owned computers. The computer(s) are powerful enough to serve a given amount of requests per minute and can do so with a certain amount of latency per request. If the computer's website or web application suddenly becomes more popular, and the amount of requests are far more than the web server can handle, the response time of the requested pages will be increased due to overloading. On the other hand, in times of low load much of the capacity will go unused.

If the website, service, or web application is hosted in a cloud, however, additional processing and compute power is available from the cloud provider. The website would share those servers with perhaps thousands of other websites varying size and memory. If the website suddenly becomes more popular, the cloud can automatically direct more individual computers to work to serve pages for the site, and more money is paid for the extra usage. If it becomes unpopular, however, the amount of money due will be less. Cloud computing is popular for its pay-as-you-go pricing model.

It has many advantages over traditional client/server/internally hosted solutions. For example the security is better (symantec use Salesforce), more reliable (trust.force.com show all server performance), multi-tennant architecture means every client receives the benefits of an improved service (for example real-time messaging, mobile applications, intuative and powerful reporting etc. etc. etc.) and you get a lot a flexibility in configuation and size.