Cloud computing is a style of computing in which resources are made available over the internet. Most often these resources are extensible and highly visualized resources and they are provided as a service. These resources can mainly be broken down to applications, platforms or infrastructure. As opposed to cloud computing, In-house computing is the concept of locally maintaining all necessary resources, which is the traditional approach taken by many until the very recent popularity of cloud computing.
What is Cloud Computing?
Cloud computing is the emerging technology of delivering many kinds of resources as services, mainly over the internet. Delivering party is referred to as the service providers, while the users are known as the subscribers. Subscribers pay subscription fees typically on a per-use basis. Cloud computing is broken down in to few different categories based on the type of service provided. SaaS (Software as a Service) is the category of cloud computing in which the main resources available as a service are software applications. PaaS (Platform as a Service) is the category/application of cloud computing in which the service providers deliver a computing platform or a solution stack to their subscribers over the internet. IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) is the category of cloud computing in which the main resources available as a service are hardware infrastructure. DaaS (Desktop as a Service) deals with proving a whole desktop experience over the internet. This is sometimes referred to as desktop virtualization/virtual desktop or hosted desktop.
What is In-house Computing?
Traditional In-house computing is the concept of locally housing and maintaining the resources by the users themselves. Until the emergence and the recent popularity of cloud computing, in-house computing was the only means of utilizing resources. For example, a company who takes the in-house computing approach, may buy, install and maintain necessary hardware including the networking components such as servers. Also, they will install necessary system and application software in each computer. They will usually have dedicated administrators or IT staff for the maintenance of the whole computing environment.
What is the difference between Cloud Computing and In-house Computing?
Cloud computing has many advantages over in-house computing. Cloud computing is cheaper compared to in-house computing because there is minimum initial setup fees. Similarly, maintenance costs for in-house computing facilities can increase over its lifetime compared to the fixed costs of cloud computing services. Cloud computing facilities are highly scalable compared to in-house. While it is very difficult and costly to maintain a supporting crew for the in-house computing facilities, cloud computing facilities always include the support of a set of systems, applications and database experts. With cloud computing, the IT staff can focus only on solving the business problem without having to spend time on problems like hardware malfunctions. It is easier to support a geographically dispersed and mobile workforce with clouds compared to in-house computing. With cloud computing, the time-to-market decreases significantly compared to in-house computing. Amidst all these advantages of using cloud computing, one reason of concern is its security. Cloud computing security is still an ongoing research area and cloud security and cloud access security have become highly active areas of discussion recently.