Cloud Computing

Cloud is often used as a euphimism for the Internet and Cloud Computing means services that may be offered by using multiple servers across the internet. The main benefits of Cloud Computing are scalability, robustness and reduced capital expenditure (for the user of Cloud based services). Scalability is made possible by adding more nodes (servers) to increase available capacity and improve performance. Robustness can be enhanced by distributing traffic across multiple nodes and providing redundancy or failover in the event one or more nodes fail. Capital expenditure can be saved when used Cloud based services since the service provider will provide the infrastructure and communications required to support their service (or build it on top of an existing Cloud based provider). Cloud Computing makes considerable use of Virtualization technology to simplify the maintenance and deployment of multiple service nodes. There are a variety of services provided via The Cloud and the definition has become somewhat blurred in recent years as vendors or service providers endeavour to associate existing application services with a term which is perceived as fashionable. Some examples of Cloud Computing include the Amazon S3 storage platform, web based application services (e.g. Google Applications), Cloud Hosting and Content Delivery Networks (CDNs). There are a range of other Cloud based services specific to Digital Asset Management, video transcoding being a notable offering.