Cloud Computing allows you to outsource the provision of computing resources to run your business and access them using a network link or the internet.
A useful analogy is that of electricity and the national grid which allows the consumer to gain access to electricity by simply plugging in an appliance without having to make any investment in its manufacture. When you want to make toast, you just plug in the toaster and turn it on without having to generate the power to heat the elements.
Cloud computing applies the same principle to the provision of IT. By adopting cloud computing, you can simply turn on your PC, laptop, smartphone or tablet PC, click on the application that you want to use and everything else is taken care of. You dont need to purchase servers and air conditioning units, pay programmers to write your business applications, IT engineers to install and maintain your systems, or bear the burden of the electricity that they consume. In particular, Cloud Computing allows small and medium sized businesses to benefit from the same efficiency enhancing business software and productivity tools as a FTSE 100 company without having to make the same level of up-front investment.
The growing demand for mobile computing has also contributed to the more widespread adoption of cloud computing since it allows businesses to complete projects more quickly and conveniently, and provides a tangible financial return for your company. Cloud Computing provides a simple and reliable means of providing employees and executives access to their IT systems from home, clients premises, hotel rooms and public access terminals. Increasingly, this access needs to be extended to smartphones, Android Tablets and iPads in addition to notebook PCs, and Cloud Computing enables this to be achieved in a way that can otherwise be difficult to implement at all, and certainly more cost-effectively that building your own in-house infrastructure to do so.
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