Cloud Computing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Cloud Computing - Essay Example Although this technology has many advantages to a global society, it has a number of risks that make it disadvantageous in its application. The development of the cloud computing technology spans a long historical period that has seen it the common phrase today in the in information technology today. In the 1950s the mainframe computer technology had many drawbacks that necessitated the need of sharing resources within computer networks in public institutions. During this time, the mainframe computers were slow and expensive and it was virtually impossible to provide each person with a mainframe computer. Consequently, the need for sharing information arose in public institutions where the number of computers were much less than the number of clients. To achieve this, the static terminals, which were used for communicating but had no processors, were invented to ensure that the CPU clock speed and the resources within the mainframe memory could be shared among various clients. Betwee n the year 1960 and 1990, cloud computing became more common as scientists suggested that it was possible to connect the whole world through the use a few data centers and numb terminals located from all over the world (Furht, and Armando 10). At this stage, this technology was foreseen as an invention that would globalize the world and connect all human beings within a cohesive network. The period between 1990 and 2000 has been a period of rapid transition of cloud computing technology. Telecommunication service providers adopted the virtual private network (VPN) in which their clients could access networks remotely. Also, this was the time when the cloud computing symbol was used by service providers to mark a separation between the core network and the client side of the network. After the proliferation of the internet technology, the internet formed common network where information could be shared and distributed within virtual computer systems. In 2000, companies such as the Am azon modernized their data centers and provided high capacity networks where information could be accessed by many clients in their online presence. Today, this technology has been adopted within the business systems to synchronize global business operations and form high capacity networks that can provide data to all clients in the world (Furht, and Armando 15). Cloud distributors have become popular as they adopt hardware Virtualization and utility computing that have become the drivers of the cloud computing technology. The cloud computing architecture is divided into two ends that separate the storage and the access sides. Strickland (2) regards the two sides of the cloud computing architecture as the front end and the back end. The front end side is constituted by the client’s computer network and the associated applications that facilitate access of the networks. Mozilla Firefox and the internet explorer are just some of the applications that are commonly used by client s to access the internet on the front end. On the other hand, the back end side constitutes the computers, servers and the autonomous data storage systems that allow the formation of a cloud that can be accessed from the front end. The internet forms a link between the front end and the back end as it forms the channel of communication between the clients and storage servers.