What is cloud computing?

Everyone is talking about “the cloud.” But what does it mean?

cloud computing

Business applications are moving to the cloud. It’s not just a fad—the shift from traditional software models to the Internet has steadily gained momentum over the last 10 years. Looking ahead, the next decade of cloud computing promises new ways to collaborate everywhere, through mobile devices.
Life before cloud computing

Traditional business applications have always been very complicated and expensive. The amount and variety of hardware and software required to run them are daunting. You need a whole team of experts to install, configure, test, run, secure, and update them.

When you multiply this effort across dozens or hundreds of apps, it’s easy to see why the biggest companies with the best IT departments aren’t getting the apps they need. Small and mid-sized businesses don’t stand a chance.

Cloud computing: a better way

With cloud computing, you eliminate those headaches because you’re not managing hardware and software—that’s the responsibility of an experienced vendor like salesforce.com. The shared infrastructure means it works like a utility: You only pay for what you need, upgrades are automatic, and scaling up or down is easy.

Cloud-based apps can be up and running in days or weeks, and they cost less. With a cloud app, you just open a browser, log in, customize the app, and start using it.

Businesses are running all kinds of apps in the cloud, like customer relationship management (CRM), HR, accounting, and much more. Some of the world’s largest companies moved their applications to the cloud with salesforce.com after rigorously testing the security and reliability of our infrastructure.

As cloud computing grows in popularity, thousands of companies are simply rebranding their non-cloud products and services as “cloud computing.” Always dig deeper when evaluating cloud offerings and keep in mind that if you have to buy and manage hardware and software, what you’re looking at isn’t really cloud computing but a false cloud.

Cloud Computing from Salesforce.

"Here are cloud computing basics for those asking, “What is cloud computing?” Cloud computing is quickly replacing the traditional model of having software applications installed on on-premise hardware, from desktop computers to rooms full of servers, depending on the size of the business. With cloud computing, businesses access applications via the internet. It’s called Software As A Service (or SaaS). Businesses are freed up from having to maintain or upgrade software and hardware. Just log on and get to work, from anywhere and, in many cases, any device. Salesforce is the leader in cloud computing, offering applications for all aspects of your business, including CRM, sales, ERP, customer service, marketing automation, business analytics, mobile application building, and much more. And it all works on the same, connected platform, drawing from the same customer data. So as opposed to working in silos, your entire company can work as one a team. And because it’s all in cloud as opposed to being installed on-premise, even the largest, enterprise-wide deployments can happen in a fraction of the time of traditional deployments, which can take over a year. "