210 Chapter Six Software, Operating Systems, and Enterprise Applications 6.5 Cloud Computing "Cloud computing" or "computing in the cloud" refers to making use of resources on the Internet (i.e., the "cloud"). These resources can include servers, data centers, storage, and applications. Also, these resources are generally accessed only using a Web browser. The advantage of cloud computing is that it dramatically reduces, sometimes even elim- inates, associated infrastructure costs. While cloud computing is often quickly adopted by small start-ups that don't have the capital to invest in IT resources, it has made sig- nificant inroads into established organizations as well. If you are familiar with any of the Internet e-mail solutions (e.g., Yahoo!, Gmail, HotMail) you already have a sense of cloud computing. For these, all you need is a Web browser and an Internet connection and you have full access to your e-mail. Everything else you need to be fully functional with these vendors' e-mail solutions exists on the Internet. These solutions have grown to include address books and calen- dars. Google has even expanded, with its Google Docs offering, to include the ability to create, store, edit, and post spreadsheets, presentations, and word processing docu- ments online. Take a moment to note how significant this is. Using Google, a user can do almost all of the most common productivity tasks without having to purchase any end-user software. Not only does this reduce the software costs to virtually zero, but it also eliminates all the tasks/costs traditionally associated with end-user produc- tivity tools (e.g., deployment, upgrades, patching, licensing, purchasing). It also reduces the burden of IT regarding centralized storage, servers, backup, etc. However, it's important to note that cloud computing does not always refer to free solutions. Sometimes it's free, and sometimes it isn't. Generally, cloud computing offer- ings are free for individual personal use, but come at a cost for business uses. One exam- ple is the Google offerings mentioned earlier. While all those features and functions are free, Google also offers a premiere edition for business users, at a cost of $50/year/user with additional features and functionality targeted to a business (e.g., more storage, data migration, phone support, shared e-mail distribution lists, greater access control options, shared calendaring). While Google is the best known in this space, the competition is growing dramatically with offerings from Microsoft, Yahoo!, and others. Companies such as Amazon, Oracle, and IBM are also in the cloud-computing space with various offerings. Taking things to the next level are business apps that are available via cloud comput- ing. Best known here is Salesforce.com, which has a suite of business applications for sales, customer service and support, sales analytics, marketing, etc. These apps are all accessed using a browser. All of the usual infrastructure requirements (servers, data cen- ters, management, upgrades, security, backups, databases, etc.) become the responsibility of the provider. Other applications that are making inroads into cloud computing are Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS), payroll, accounting, and content manage- ment. Because managing e-mail can be so mission critical, burdensome, and complex, many companies are now offering Microsoft's Exchange e-mail solution via the Internet as a way to shift that burden away from individual IT departments.