Head in the clouds the world in your pocket

Cloud computing has been around since the 1950s (when “time-sharing” – which is considered the underlying concept of cloud computing – was used in academia and large corporations) and people have been using it regularly for years, probably without even realising it. Although you wouldn’t think so given the amount of attention it’s been receiving the past year or so.Michael Hazilias, CEO of HRMWEB and the creator of workforce management cloud solution easyEMPLOYER explains, “All those free services you’ve been using for years to communicate with, save information on, share media with i.e. MySpace, Hotmail, Facebook, YouTube, Dropbox, Flickr, they all utilise the cloud. However, only in recent times have these services had the ‘cloud’ label slapped on them hence the perception that cloud computing is something new”.
Regardless of having been around for years cloud hype has helped make it more understood and created fascination amongst the average consumer. The cloud hype has also brought a touch of sex appeal to a technology that essentially involves computing platforms owned by someone else and available for rent on an as needed basis.In our two part series we will leave all of the hype behind and look at what cloud computing (also referred to as the cloud) is and the opportunities it brings with it. This week we will start by explaining what cloud computing is.

What is cloud computing?

In order to understand what the cloud is it’s best to look at the opportunities it offers rather than the way it works, however it’s also good to have an understanding of the basic premise.

In its simplest form cloud computing is the delivery of an IT solution as a service to an end user. The user, whether it be an individual or a business, can store all of their data in the solution and access it via the Internet by using a web browser and their choice of device (like a computer, laptop, phone etc). Users are not required to understand the technology, own, operate or maintain any of the IT infrastructures.

The best examples of cloud computing are often the simplest. Like being able to share your holiday photos with friends by simply uploading them to Flickr or collaborating on documents with others through Google Docs. The cloud really comes into its own when it comes to businesses wanting IT solutions that are cost effective, flexible and fully redundant.

“We use cloud based tools to operate our business and seven years ago we were so confident of its future impact that we built our easyEMPLOYER staff management solution with the cloud in mind. Today our clients are using it to roster, clock and approve hours worked and pay their staff all done in real time, online, and in some cases from half a world away from their place of business.“ Michael Hazilias.

So that’s the cloud in a nutshell. Stay tuned for the next article in our cloud computing series where we will talk about all the great opportunities using the cloud brings.

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Want to learn more about cloud applications that make your business better? See how we give our clients an easy way to manage their workforce (you know all of those annoying, frustrating and time consuming tasks like rostering, time collection, award interpretation, payroll etc) using cloud based software to do your staff admin!