What is Cloud Computing?

IT industry analyst IDC defined Cloud Computing as: "Cloud computing is the IT development, deployment and delivery model enabling real-time delivery of products, services and solutions over the Internet."

 In other words, it's using the Internet's processing power and storage space to host and deliver software applications to users,...

...and to store their data.

Cloud computing - which includes Software as a Service (SaaS) - means that your programs and data are held on servers which are owned and managed by a third party. You then connect to them over the Internet.

There are many good business reasons for using cloud computing. You do not have the capital outlay for the server hardware, software licences and data centres. You can pay by subscription, or even on a "pay as you go" basis.

Also, the servers are located in secure data centres and managed to a higher level than is normally possible for most small and medium businesses.