How about a Cloud Computing for Dummies type explanation?
Have you seen diagrams of the architecture of some computer system and there will be a cloud representing the internet? I.e., the idea is that while there is some concrete physical path that a message takes from one side to the other, the path is unknown to those on either side and may well vary from message to message or day to day. So, the image of a cloud is used to represent that unknown pattern of connectivity.
In a more conventional application, e.g., a web-based store, one has a computer run by the vendor and the users with their browsers accessing that computer through the cloud.
Cloud computing takes this one step further and puts the host computer itself in the cloud. It is no longer *your* computer, but one of many computers provided by the cloud computing infrastructure provider. It isn't a specific dedicated computer, just some computer somewhere that got assigned when you started up the application. It has a logical position, but its physical position is unknown to you. You don't own the computer, you rent it. The user can be anywhere, but has a logical path by which they can connect to it. Everything is virtual to the store or the user, but, of course, somewhere there are real computers doing what they always do. Because the infrastructure vendor has lots of computers and disk and other resources, it is very easy to dynamically scale up (or down) because one is only renting the time on the machines, not paying for the machines.
That help? |
