This is the Safari online edition of the printed book.

Cloud Computing: Web-Based Applications That Change the Way You Work and Collaborate On-Line

Computing as you know it has changed. No longer are you tied to using expensive programs stored on your computer. No longer will you be able to only access your data from one computer. No longer will you be tied to doing work only from your work computer or playing only from your personal computer.

Enter cloud computing–an exciting new way to work with programs and data, collaborate with friends and family, share ideas with coworkers and friends, and most of all, be more productive! The “cloud” consists of thousands of computers and servers, all linked and accessible to you via the Internet.

With cloud computing, everything you do is now web-based instead of being desktop-based; you can access all your programs and documents from any computer that’s connected to the Internet. Whether you want to share photographs with your family, coordinate volunteers for a community organization, or manage a multi-faceted project in a large organization, cloud computing can help you do it more easily than ever before. Trust us. If you need to collaborate, cloud computing is the way to do it.

     •    Learn what cloud computing is, how it works, who should use it, and why it’s the wave of the future.

     •    Explore the practical benefits of cloud computing, from saving money on expensive programs to accessing your documents ANYWHERE.

     •    See just how easy it is to manage work and personal schedules, share documents with coworkers and friends, edit digital photos, and much more!

     •    Learn how to use web-based applications to collaborate on reports and presentations, share online calendars and to-do lists, manage large projects, and edit and store digital photographs.

Michael Miller is known for his casual, easy-to-read writing style and his ability to explain a wide variety of complex topics to an everyday audience. Mr. Miller has written more than 80 nonfiction books over the past two decades, with more than a million copies in print. His books for Que include Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Computer Basics,  Googlepedia: The Ultimate Google Resource, and Is It Safe?: Protecting Your Computer, Your Business, and Yourself Online. His website is located at www.molehillgroup.com.

Covers the most popular cloud-based applications, including the following:

     • Adobe Photoshop Express

     • Apple MobileMe

     • Glide OS

     • Google Docs

     • Microsoft Office Live Workspace

     • Zoho Office

CATEGORY:  Web Applications

COVERS:  Cloud Computing

USER LEVEL:  Beginner-Intermediate

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 9 Ratings

Practical introduction to cloud computing - 2009-09-21
Reviewer Rating:
In the information technology world, the clouds keep rolling in. But this is hardly a cause for concern. These "clouds" are not threatening thunderheads but Web-based applications and services, accessible from any Internet connection. For instance, many businesses today use Salesforce for customer relationship management and many people use Gmail. In either case, users access these applications through a Web browser, such as Internet Explorer or Firefox. However, the users' data (customer names, e-mails and so on) isn't stored on their computers but "in the cloud," the technical term - or geek-speak - for "somewhere on the Internet." Some applications target the consumer, some target the business user and some target the software developer. Whoever the targeted users are, cloud-based applications and similar technologies are the next big trend in IT and getAbstract assures you that Michael Miller's brief, basic and very enthusiastic guide will help you understand them even if you are a novice. Sometimes it's useful to have your head in the clouds.

Informative! - 2009-06-22
Reviewer Rating:
This book is quite informative. It provides a basic review of cloud computing and associated web-based applications for layperson. I enjoy most reading about webtop (web-based destop) and event management. However, it is disappointing to find that most popular applications (e.g. Google Docs, Yahoo!, Windows Live, Apple MobileMe, Adobe Buzzword and Photoshop Express) are only briefly covered.

A nice introduction to Cloud services - 2009-07-29
Reviewer Rating:
This book is a nice introduction to cloud based applications available currently. Without going into too much technical detail, it gives a quick overview on how one can choose a cloud service online for a particular task, say online data storage. Although, it is not a user manual for the cloud services it discussed, the screenshot and figures are helpful for a novice in this area. This book is not written for a reader looking for help in research. However, first few chapters do discuss some fundamentals of cloud computing.

Extremely Weak - 2009-07-25
Reviewer Rating:
Unfortunately I was in a hurry for a book as I had a long bus ride and bought this book from the bookstore without carefully browsing through it first. I guess the lofty title "Cloud Computing" is what caught me as Amazon EC2, S3, and web services in general are becoming more prevalant these days. This book is completely trivial though and misses the whole point about explaining the architecture and details of cloud computing. It just glosses over this topic from an ignorant user's perspective of what web applications are. To the author: if 95% of your book is geared toward web applications and 5% of your book is geared towards cloud computing/web services why call the book "Cloud Computing" that's false advertisement. I have a strong background in Computer Science and I was deeply insulted by this book. Programmers and IT professionals, save your money.

Feet firmly planted in the clouds - 2009-06-05
Reviewer Rating:
Book is at best an introduction to cloud computing. One / two chapters are pretty good, the rest are pretty lame to be honest. The book is also inaccurate on certain historical facts on computing platforms. With the exception of a couple of chapters the books is useless to the IT professional, however, to the layperson it's not too bad. But for $16.00 one can't complain too much

Browse Similar Topics

Top Level Categories:
Business
Internet/Online

Sub-Categories:
Business > Digital Frontier
Internet/Online > Business Strategy