What Is a Cloud Service?

At its most basic, a cloud service is one that you access over the Internet. A cloud service subscription is not much different from paying for a phone service. In fact, some phone services are Internet-based these days. You might have heard the term “Voice over IP” (abbreviated as VoIP and pronounced just like it looks). If not, you’ve probably seen Magic Jack™ advertised on TV, which provides a popular way to connect a telephone to the Internet. Magic Jack is a cloud-based telephone service.

Any website you access is a cloud service. Online banking is a cloud service. Amazon.com is a cloud service. There are thousands of examples, and if all of these services are so common, why is the cloud such a hot topic these days? To answer that question, we need to look at how small businesses use online services.