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10 BENEFITS OF CLOUD COMPUTING

1. Achieve economies of scale increase volume output or productivity with fewer people. Your cost per
unit, project or product plummets.
2. Reduce spending on technology infrastructure. Maintain easy access to your information with minimal
upfront spending. Pay as you go (weekly, quarterly or yearly), based on demand.
3. Globalize your workforce on the cheap. People worldwide can access the cloud, provided they have an
Internet connection.
4. Streamline processes. Get more work done in less time with less people.
5. Reduce capital costs. Theres no need to spend big money on hardware, software or licensing fees.
6. Improve accessibility. You have access anytime, anywhere, making your life so much easier!
7. Monitor projects more effectively. Stay within budget and ahead of completion cycle times.
8. Less personnel training is needed. It takes fewer people to do more work on a cloud, with a minimal
learning curve on hardware and software issues.
9. Minimize licensing new software. Stretch and grow without the need to buy expensive software licenses
or programs.
10. Improve flexibility. You can change direction without serious people or financial issues at stake.
About the Author: Global business expert Laurel Delaney is the founder of GlobeTrade.com (a Global TradeSource,
Ltd. company). She also is the creator of Borderbuster, an e-newsletter, and The Global Small Business Blog, all
highly regarded for their global small business coverage. You can reach Delaney at ldelaney@globetrade.com or
follow her on Twitter @LaurelDelaney.
1. Flexibility

The second a company needs more bandwidth than usual, a cloud-based service can instantly meet
the demand because of the vast capacity of the services remote servers. In fact, this flexibility is so
crucial that 65% of respondents to an InformationWeek survey said the ability to quickly meet
business demands was an important reason to move to cloud computing.
2. Disaster recovery
When companies start relying on cloud-based services, they no longer need complex disaster
recovery plans. Cloud computing providers take care of most issues, and they do it faster.Aberdeen
Group found that businesses which used the cloud were able to resolve issues in an average of 2.1
hours, nearly four times faster than businesses that didnt use the cloud (8 hours). The same study
found that mid-sized businesses had the best recovery times of all, taking almosthalf the time of
larger companies to recover.
3. Automatic software updates
In 2010, UK companies spent 18 working days per month managing on-site security alone. But cloud
computing suppliers do the server maintenance including security updates themselves, freeing up
their customers time and resources for other tasks.
4. Cap-Ex Free
Cloud computing services are typically pay as you go, so theres no need for capital expenditure at
all. And because cloud computing is much faster to deploy, businesses have minimal project start-up
costs and predictable ongoing operating expenses.
5. Increased collaboration
Cloud computing increases collaboration by allowing all employees wherever they are to sync up
and work on documents and shared apps simultaneously, and follow colleagues and records to
receive critical updates in real time. A survey by Frost & Sullivan found that companies which
invested in collaboration technology had a 400% return on investment.
6. Work from anywhere

As long as employees have internet access, they can work from anywhere. This flexibility positively
affects knowledge workers' work-life blanace and productivity. One study found that 42% of working
adults would give up some of their salary if they could telecommute, and on average they would take
a 6% paycut.
7. Document control
According to one study, "73% of knowledge workers collaborate with people in different time zones
and regions at least monthly".
If a company doesnt use the cloud, workers have to send files back and forth over email, meaning
only one person can work on a file at a time and the same document has tonnes of names and
formats.
Cloud computing keeps all the files in one central location, and everyone works off of one central
copy. Employees can even chat to each other whilst making changes together. This whole process
makes collaboration stronger, which increases efficiency and improves a companys bottom line.
8. Security
Some 800,000 laptops are lost each year in airports alone. This can have some serious monetary
implications, but when everything is stored in the cloud, data can still be accessed no matter what
happens to a machine.
9. Competitiveness
The cloud grants SMEs access to enterprise-class technology. It also allows smaller businesses to
act faster than big, established competitors. A study on disaster recovery eventually concluded that
companies that didnt use the cloud had to rely on tape backup methods and complicated
procedures to recover slow, laborious things which cloud users simply dont use, allowing David to
once again out-manoeuvre Goliath.
10. Environmentally friendly
Businesses using cloud computing only use the server space they need, which decreases their
carbon footprint. Using the cloud results in at least 30% less energy consumption and carbon
emissions than using on-site servers. And again, SMEs get the most benefit: for small companies,
the cut in energy use and carbon emissions is likely to be 90%.

What is Cloud Computing? - The Complete Guide
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Cloud computing is a better way to run your business. Instead of running your apps yourself, they
run on a shared multi-tenant. When you use any app that runs in the cloud, you just log in,
customize it, and start using it. Thats the power of cloud computing.
Businesses are running all kinds of apps in the cloud these days, like CRM, HR, accounting, and
custom-built apps. Cloud-based apps can be up and running in a few days, which is unheard of with
traditional business software. They cost less, because you dont need to pay for all the hardware and
software, extensive configuration and maintenance of a full technology stack, or facilities to run
them. And, it turns out theyre more scalable, more secure, and more reliable than most apps. Plus,
upgrades are taken care of for you, so your apps get security and performance enhancements and
new featuresautomatically.
The way you pay for cloud-based apps is also different. Forget about buying servers and software.
When your apps run in the cloud, you dont buy anything. Its all rolled up into a predictable monthly
subscription, so you only pay for what you actually use.
Finally, cloud apps dont eat up your valuable IT resources, so your CFO will love it. This lets you
focus on deploying more apps, new projects, and innovation. The bottom line: Cloud computing is a
simple idea, but it can have a huge impact on your business.

The Benefits of Cloud Computing
Costs Less
Cloud computing providers share their complex infrastructure and servers, and consumers only pay
for the storage they use, which saves them money.
A report by Osterman Research revealed that in 2010, companies spent an average of $6335 on
cloud computing, or $23.31 per employee. That figure is expected to rise to $26.63, or $6920.
Mobile
Users can access their content from anywhere with an internet connection.
At the end of 2010, there were an estimated 940 million 3G subscriptions worldwide - meaning
almost a billion people could do work on their phones from pretty much anywhere on the planet.
Add as a second point: Gartner forecasts that by 2013, there will be 1.6 billion mobile devices,
with smartphones leading tablets and laptops as the fastest growing segment. [Source: Gartner
Research; Smartphone, Tablet, and PC Forecast, December 2010.]
Flexible
The scalable systems of the cloud mean services and usage can expand or contract on demand.
Amazon.com began offering and selling cloud computing because on the average day, they were
only using 10% of their server resources. The other 90% just sat around until there was a spike in
service demands.
Software Updates
With cloud computing, you're putting server maintenance in the hands of people who do it
professionally, day in, day out, and build their company's reputation off the back of good server
maintenance.
Though a loss of control is a major concern to some businesses (an InformationWeek survey
found 'control' was one of the top three concerns respondents had with cloud computing), most
businesses recognise the benefits of having an agile system (65% of respondents said "the ability
to quickly meet business demands" was the most important reason for moving to cloud
computing).
Who Uses the Cloud and How

SaaS - Software as a service.
This means pretty much any program that you use on the internet.
- Producers - Any online provider, Salesforce.com Google Docs, Facebook
- Consumers - Pretty much everyone who uses the internet
PaaS - Platform as a service.
This describes services that developers use to build custom cloud applications.
- Producers - Force.com, Google App Engine
- Consumers - App and web developers
IaaS - Infrastructure as a service
In this service, companies access either physical or virtual servers on a pay-as-you-go basis. This
allows them to pay for only the server space they use. It often overlaps with PaaS, and the
distinction between the two is often very difficult to make.
- Producers - Amazons Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)
- Consumers - Development and IT providers
Jargon Busters

Jargon buster 1 Virtual Server Despite popular misconception, this is not an animated
restaurant waiter. A virtual server is a physical server running multiple virtual machines or isolated
operating systems simultaneously.
Jargon buster 2 Utility computing Paying for applications and hardware on a pay-as-you-go
basis from a service provider, rather than installing and maintaining them personally. This is just like
paying for any other utility, like water or gas.
Jargon buster 3 Private cloud and public cloud A private cloud is a service that is built for only
one company to use. A public cloud is a more standardised service that hundreds of thousands of
companies could use at once though they cant access each others information. There are also
hybrid cloud services that use a bit of both of these.
Jargon buster 4 Multi-tenancy Cloud service providers have massive technology stacks with
servers that run the same operating system, and with the same database and application server
layers. The application metadata and data is broken up into many distinct parts, and individual
companies can access their own distinct part, but not anyone elses. It is much like a hotel or office
building, with thousands of rooms. The rooms share the same utilities, electricity, plumbing, lifts,
cleaners, staff etc., which makes them cheaper than building your own house, but each room is only
accessible by the person or company who rents the space.
A Complete History of Cloud Computing
inShare42
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By 2020 the cloud computing market is forecast to exceed $241 billion - but how did we get
here? Where did it all start?
Though the actual history of cloud computing is not that old (the first business and consumer cloud
computing services websites salesforce.com and Google, were launched in 1999), its story is tied
directly to the development of the Internet and business technology, since cloud computing is the
solution to the problem of how the Internet can help improve business technology.
Business technology has a long and fascinating history, one that is almost as long as business itself,
but the developments that most directly influenced the history of cloud computing start with the
emergence of computers as providers of real business solutions.

The internets "infancy"
Where business technology first became feasible and dreams of a global network where
theories could be debated?"
Though computers had been around for some time, the state of the technology and the culture of the
1950s created the perfect environment for innovation to be made quickly. Computers were basically
large calculators that used punch cards to work on calculations, so although they were useful,
improvements could clearly be made. The cultural environment was shaped by Cold War fascination
with the utopia that could be created using technology, as well as newfound prosperity to pay for it.
These two factors meant people were both willing and able to invest in advancements.
The first practical microchip was developed in the late 1950s, and once computers could do more
complex calculations, people started developing programs for business applications. The first routine
office computer job is done in 1951 by the LEO computer, which was designed to deal with the
overnight production requirements, payroll, inventory and other administrative tasks for J. Lyons &
Co., a catering and food manufacturing company. This could be considered the first integrated
management information system.
Did You Know Fun Fact:
The first practical microchip was developed in the late 1950s, and once computers could do more
complex calculations, people started developing programs for business applications.
Almost as soon as computers were demonstrating their usefulness in business, companies started
thinking about how to serve smaller businesses. In 1959, IBM introduced the 1401 model , which
gave smaller businesses access to data processing computers. The 1401 was so popular that by the
mid-60s, almost half of the worlds computer systems were 1401-type systems.
The 60s saw the world thinking internationally - and concept of delivering computing services
internationally came into its own. In 1964, Douglas Engelbart and his colleagues invented a
graphical user interface the used both windows and a mouse, which would be invaluable several
decades later as the personal computer and the Internet became commonplace.
J.C.R. Licklider might be the biggest contributor to the history of cloud computing in this era. He
spent the 1960s developing ARPANET the forerunner to Internet. He also suggested there could
be an intergalactic computer network in 1969, clearly anticipating the global domination of the
Internet and, in a way, cloud computing. He was not the only person to have that idea, though.
Before him, John McCarthy introduced the idea of computation being delivered as a public utility
back in 1961. These visions of a global network and a utilities-based business model are, of course,
two of the driving principles behind cloud computing and Internet access in general.
The internets "childhood"
Where it became clear that ARPANET was a pretty big deal and some big computer
companies were founded
In the 1970s, the concepts and elements that were suggested in the 50s and 60s were being
developed in earnest. Additionally, many of the worlds biggest computer companies were founded,
and the internet was born. In 1971, Intel, founded in the previous decade, introduced the world to the
first microprocessor, and Intel engineer Ray Tomlinson wrote a program that allowed users to send
messages from one computer to another, subsequently sending the very first message that most
people would recognise as email.
Did You Know Fun Fact:
In 1971 Intel engineer Ray Tomlinson wrote a program that allowed users to send messages from
one computer to another, subsequently sending the very first message that most people would
recognise as email
Meanwhile, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft in 1974, while Steve Wozniak and Steve
Jobs founded Apple Computers in 1976 and introduced the Apple II in the same year. All the while,
the US Department of Defence had been developing ARPANET into Internet, and in 1976, Xeroxs
Robert Metcalfe presented the concept of the Ethernet.

Later in the decade, CompuServe Information Services and The Source both went online in 1979,
foreshadowing the point when the internet would be hosted by and accessed through commercial
service providers.
The 80s ushered in the first major, worldwide boom in computers. By 1980, there were more than 5
million computers in use worldwide, but generally these were built for business or government use.
So in 1981, IBM put the first personal computer on the market, and in 1982, Microsoft began
licensing MS-DOS, the operating system that, because of large-scale marketing efforts by Microsoft,
most personal computers would run on. Then, instead of a global dystopia, 1984 brought the first
Macintosh computer, the founding of Dell computer by Michael Dell and William Gibsons coining of
the term cyberspace.
The seeds were being sown for the rise of the internet.
The internets international debut
Where the Internet as a place for both commerce and communication came into its own.
The 1990s connected the world in an unprecedented way, starting with CERNs release of the World
Wide Web for general (that is, non-commercial) use in 1991. In 1993, a browser called Mosaic
allowed graphics to be shown on Internet, and private companies were allowed to use Internet for
the first time, too.
Did You Know Fun Fact:
Netscape was founded in 1994, with internet traffic handed over to commercial enterprises like
Netscape in 1995, with Amazon & Ebay founded in the same year.
Once companies were online, they began to think of the commercial possibilities that came with
being able to reach the world in an instant, and some of the biggest players online were founded.
Marc Andreessen and Jim Clark founded Netscape in 1994, and none too soon, since 1995 saw
internet traffic handed over to commercial enterprises like Netscape. At the same time, stalwarts of
the internet Amazon.com and eBay were founded by Jeff Bezos and Pierre Omidyan, respectively.
The internets "adulthood" and cloud computings rise
Where the dot-com bubble bursts like a pimple and cloud computing comes to the fore
The end of the 90s and beginning of the 2000s were a great time to find or invest in an internet-
based company. Cloud computing had the right environment to take off, as multi-tenant
architectures, highly prevalent high-speed bandwidth and universal software interoperability
standards were developed in this time. Salesforce.com debuted in 1999 and was the first site to
deliver business applications from a normal website what is now called cloud computing.
The unadulterated optimism of this time led to the dot-com boom, where internet-based companies,
backed by seemingly endless venture capital and overly confident projections, grew rapidly. Many of
these companies hoped they could run at a loss for a while, then charge for services later, which
meant they were running on investment capital and earning no income at all. Amazon and Google
both failed to operate at a profit in their first years, though this was because they were spending
money on marketing efforts or improving their technology.
The dot-com bubble hit its peak on 10th March 2000, and then burst over the following weekend as
major high-tech stockholders like Dell and Cisco sold off a lot of their stock. Several things could
have contributed to the collapse of the bubble, including the anti-monopoly ruling against Microsoft
(which, although not revealed until the beginning of April, had been widely anticipated). Other
reasons include poor online takings from the 1999 Christmas season and Y2K though not in the
world-ending way many people predicted. Instead, businesses spent a lot of money updating
systems and equipment, so when the day passed without event, businesses stopped spending
money to cover the expense of updating so much. This meant that they stopped trading, put on
hiring freezes and generally found ways to stop spending money.
Nonetheless, research shows that 50% of dot-coms survived until 2004, so instead of being driven
out of business by the bursting of the bubble, businesses either thrived or were simply not viable.
Still, to continue to survive, businesses had to rethink or refine their business models and what they
offered to customers. Many newer companies decided to offer services that saw the internet as a
crucial part of the service, rather than as a medium to place orders or communicate with customers.
Amazon.com introduced Amazon Web Services in 2002. This gave users the ability to store data
and put a gigantic number of humans to work on very small tasks (such as Mechanical Turk),
amongst other services. Facebook was founded in 2004, revolutionising the way users communicate
and the way they store their own data (their photos and video), inadvertently making the cloud a
personal service.
In 2006, Amazon expanded its cloud services. First was its Elastic Compute cloud (EC2), which
allowed people to access computers and run their own applications on them, all on the cloud. Then
they brought out Simple Storage Service (S3). This introduced the pay-as-you-go model to both
users and the industry as a whole, and it has basically become standard practice now.
Salesforce.com then launched force.com in 2007. This platform as a service (PaaS) let companies
developers build, store and run all of the apps and websites they needed to run their business in the
cloud. Google Apps launched in 2009, allowing people to create and store documents entirely in the
cloud.
Most recently, cloud computing companies have been thinking about how they can make their
products even more integrated. In 2010 Salesforce.com introduced the cloud-based database at
Database.com for developers, marking the development of could computing services that can be
used on any device, run on any platform and written in any programming language.
Did You Know Fun Fact:
It's predicted that US tablet sales will reach 44 million in 2015 eclipsing laptop sales.
Of course, the future of the internet and cloud computing have in the past proved hard to predict, but
so long as companies strive to connect the world and serve that connected world in new ways, there
will always be a need for both the internet and cloud computing. Don't forget to read up on
the benefits of cloud computing and 10 great cloud applications and services for SME's.

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