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ABSTRACT
Cloud computing is a technique for supplying computer facilities and providing access to software via the Internet. Cloud computing represents a contextual shift in how computers are provisioned and accessed. One of the defining characteristics of cloud software service is the transfer of control from the client domain to the sendee provider. Another is that the client benefits from economy of scale on the part of the provider. Cloud computing is particularly attractive to small and medium-sized educational institutions, because it represents a lower total cost of ownership (TCO) than alternative modalities.
Keywords: Cloud computing, software-as-a-service, platform-as-a-service, infrastructure-as-a-service, private cloud, public cloud, community cloud, hybrid cloud.
INTRODUCTION
As modern education, government, and business, have evolved into the 21st century, the use of computers to sustain everyday operations has increased. Most organizations employ computers to enhance core services and provide supplementary services to gain efficacy and efficiency for auxiliary operations. One of the newest technologies for IT provisioning is cloud computing that has garnered a considerable amount of attention in the business, education, and government communities. Many persons in small business, universities, and schools are not totally aware of the benefits of cloud computing, and that is the reason for this paper. First, we will cover what cloud computing is; then we will cover how it works; next we will cover how to get it; and finally, we will provide the pros and cons of adopting it as your mode of operation.
Cloud computing is a means of providing computer facilities via the Internet, but that is only half of the picture. The other half is that it is also a means of accessing those same computer facilities via the Internet from different locations. When a school or university, for example, moves to cloud computing for online operations, it necessarily considers both halves of the equation. The adjective "cloud" reflects the diagrammatic use of a cloud as a metaphor for the Internet. In telecommunications, a cloud is the unpredictable part of a network through which organizational and personal information passes from end-to-end and over which we do not have direct knowledge or control.1
The value proposition that underlies cloud computing is that an organization does not have to pay the upfront costs of...