Cloud computing leaders
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Cloud computing can seem a daunting subject as it encompasses a wide range of technologies, services, companies, and perspectives. It is even more difficult to identify those companies that are good for this market , as the marketplace is ever changing through innovation. In its simplest form, cloud computing is any service or infrastructure that offers hosted information that is calculated at a remote location, can be accessed from anywhere on-line, and is then streamed to a user’s computer. In itself then, the internet is cloud computing. When an individual logs on to the internet and uses an internet browser to visit a website, the information displayed on the user’s screen has been both calculated at, and streamed from a remote source (a web server).
Taking this idea one step further, we can apply cloud computing to software. So for example, in the computer gaming industry players can log on to distant servers and play games such as ‘World Of Warcraft’. The player can then interact with other players who are logged in to that server and can stream information to their computer from the server. Much of the data is calculated on the server and not with the client program. This is referred to as calculating ‘in the cloud’ as the computer resources being used are the remote server’s and not the user’s. This form of on-line multiplayer gaming has been innovated and led by companies like Blizzard and Activision with their Call of Duty series.
In recent times this has been taken even further, as a service called On-Live has been announced. This service allows users with lower-end computers to play the most advanced games that would usually require thousands of pounds worth of hardware. This is achieved by having all of the gaming data calculated by remote servers and then streamed to the user’s screen as compressed video. Gaming using these cloud computing processes is gaining a reputation as a full replacement for current gaming platforms, with costly new hardware purchases by the user circumvented.
Outside of the gaming industry there are a variety of high profile companies that provide cloud computing to consumers. Amazon is one of the market leaders in providing a web service for resizable computer capacity in the cloud. This allows companies to host information on-line using their Amazon S3 service and to run calculations via their Amazon EC2 service.
Rightscale.com is another company that provides innovative cloud computing providing servers that will run and calculate a variety of software packages that can then be logged onto remotely. Others such as gogrid.com, Cirrhus9.com, layertech.com, and rackspacecloud.com all provide excellent services geared towards storing and running programs in the cloud.
Alternatively, other companies and groups have focused more on software by programming platforms that can be used to execute cloud computing such as 3Tera AppLogic, Eucalyptus, Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud, and VMware vCloud to name but a few.
Computing in the cloud is increasingly being developed as a low cost way for consumers to run high-end software and has reached a level of efficiency that may see the market leaders push hardware manufacturers into developing servers for cloud computing rather than hardware for home consumption.
