The primary aim behind cloud based solutions is to provide individuals with the perception that they offer truly global solutions to global challenges. For example, Amazon Web Services has recently created partnerships with Microsoft and Hewlett Packard to offer “Platform as a Service” – a new web-based delivery model for software. As of today, many cloud service companies like Google, IBM, Salesforce and Sun have established partnerships with Microsoft Corporation, IBM and Hewlett Packard. Among these giants, Google’s Wildfire and IBM’s Bluemory have the most significant impact on the global marketplace.
The second reason why many people are confused about what cloud based solutions means is because of the terminology they use to describe it. For example, a customer might have heard about on-demand, semi-custom, or fully-custom web services, but they don’t know how to differentiate between the three. This is just one of the many challenges that cloud computing presents to organizations. However, many cloud service providers, like IBM, Salesforce and Microsoft, quickly attach the term cloud based solutions to their offerings in order to provide clarity to the customer.
The third reason why many people are confused about what cloud based solutions actually mean is because of a misunderstanding of how they work. When an organization uses a cloud provider’s services – even if it’s a company that offers fully-custom web applications – the end user or client does not see any of the underlying infrastructure. Instead, the user is exposed to a series of high-level programming code. This is the reason why many call cloud based solutions on-demand. The user’s computer works just like a server does, storing files, applications and programs, allowing the user to access them from anywhere in the world at any time. By contrast, when an organization uses a shared server, its data resides on just one physical machine.