Simply put, cloud computing is ‘computing power delivered anywhere, anytime, driving on the global connectivity of the World Wide Web.’ It’s become a fascinating revolution, writing the first chapter of a new era of web browsing and web experiences.
Not only do small and growing businesses get to enjoy the power of computing without having to deploy file servers, storage systems, e-mail servers, and what not, but it also means that you can have access to a whole library of your personal data and your most important productivity applications anytime, anywhere. All you need is your account and login details to access the cloud based service or application on any smartphone, tablet or other device and you can resume from where you left off.
File storage services offering GBs of space, web based content management, website publishing, online video clip making and other multimedia services such as a super cool one I discovered earlier today: ShakeM. Here’s a toast to some of the best cloud based services making the internet such an enjoyable and empowering experience for the most demanding of web users.
DropBox - Drop it, and get it anywhere
You knew it... DropBox has to be one of the most popular cloud based service for web users. Allowing 2GB of free web based storage to users, Dropbox is super handy for freelancers and routine web users. All you need to do is to install the DropBox app on your device, and easily sync the desired folders with the free cloud account.
The synced data is accessible from any computer terminal across the globe. Added features include the facility of selectively sharing folders, sending shared folder links to friends, clients, and family. For those who need to shift workstations throughout the day, Dropbox is their riddance from USB drives and data cables. Dropbox is also available for all mobile based operating systems, thus coming to the fore as the most comprehensive cloud based storage system.
Amazon EC2 – changing the way web users purchase computing infrastructure services
Amazon’s Elastic Cloud (EC2) is easily among the most widely used and widely revered cloud based computing services. Based on the IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) model of cloud computing, Amazon EC2 is a massive change to the way small businesses spend for more computing infrastructure. High end computing power is affordable thanks to Amazon EC2. With virtual machines offering superb computing power and resources, Amazon EC2 is the future of computing infrastructure services. Small businesses can actually replace their existing computing infrastructure setups or get the much needed additional computing bandwidth using these services. Paying only for what they need, and not necessarily having to invest in the groundwork, small businesses and adventurous web users can get the best computing power across the cloud, at prices less than $1,000 annually, for Windows platform, and even lesser for Linux platform.
Google Apps – the cocktail offering the best from the cloud
Of course, you may have been using Google Mail and their instant messaging client years now, and don’t quite see any fascination in that. However, Google apps deliver the best from the world of cloud computing in the form of dozens of dedicated apps for performing specific functions. View, change and create documents of the most routinely used types using cloud based office tools from Google. Then, you have several cloud based business service tools such as accounts management and marketing oriented widgets. The best part – there are developers out there who can create a custom Google app for you!
Salesforce.com – the ‘everything’ of cloud computing services for businesses
Empowering businesses to make more sales without compromising time or operational expenses is Salesforce.com, the pinnacle of dedicated business-oriented cloud services. With a myriad of cloud services such as Database.com, Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Heroku, RemedyForce, and Jigsaw, the Salesforce.com suite is everything that an enterprise could require to manage its operations digitally from any corner of the world, and that too without foregoing any considerable amount of IT spending budget.
