What is “The Cloud” and Cloud Computing?

Have you heard the phrase “It is in the Cloud” or “Cloud Computing”?

Cloud computing is about a computer program, a website, data storage, an application – like a school management system, airline bookings systems, hotel reservation.

In the past every company had their own computer room for their computers.

It was complex and very costly – needing lots of skilled people.

With Cloud computing, a different company owns and manages computers – and makes them available to rent.

These computers (servers) are located in a Data Centre.

There can be thousands of them in a Data Centre.

This is a large Data Centre   (Virak – referring to a picture of a Data Centre)

Here you can see racks of computers –15 in each rack.

The computers are similar to the ones you have in the computer room at school, except they are more powerful and better quality. Some are very powerful.

There is no monitor, because they are all managed from one place.

The application using them is your phone, or desktop computer.

Each computer can run many different websites or applications.

There is always someone managing them, so they are available all the time.

For IT-Club, the cost is much lower. It costs about $100 per year – which is cheaper than buying a computer and managing it.

You can host a small website of your own in Phnom Penh for about $30 a year.

Why is it “in the Cloud”?

Because

The location is not very important, it could be anywhere – just like clouds.

The Internet is so fast and flexible it allows me to choose based on price and service quality.

Do I know where my computers are?

I do now that I have researched for this video 😊

For IT-Club our main computer is in London. We share one computer with 9 other websites.

We have 20 websites on a single computer in Singapore for students to practice website development.

It is easy to set-up and maintain. The location does not matter.

Can I find the locations if I want to?

Yes. There are Apps on Play Store that will help you.

First you need Net Analyzer which will tell you the IP (Internet Protocol) address of a website

Then use Intrace, enter the IP address. It will show you the map location of the website (within a few metres)