Cloud computing is a phenomenon made possible because of the increasing speed of broadband

Internet and the ability for people to access web pages at lightning fast speeds. Without these fast
speeds, people would be unable to compute in the clouds. To better understand how cloud
computing works, it is beneficial to understand what it is.
Cloud computing is a grid of computers that acts like the architecture necessary to provide
software and data to other computers. Its purpose is to deliver software that might be put on the
architecture by a company to individual computers connected to the Internet. For example,
Google Documents is software that is “in the clouds” that delivers a word processing program to
people without them needing to install it on their computer. And, with the power of Google’s
servers, they can then save those files right “in the clouds” without needing to burden their own
hard drive.

How Does Cloud Computing Work?

To understand it works, it is important to think of cloud computing in two levels. The front level
is the user level which is what you use such as your Google Email or Facebook or the webpage
where you are downloading the latest version of Flash. The other level is the backend which is
all of the hardware and the software architecture. It’s here that the actual Gmail or Facebook is
held waiting to be accessed by you.
Because all of the different servers are running together in cloud computing, one application can
have the computer power of many servers. This allows something like Facebook to run. Imagine
trying to host Faecbook on your laptop. It just wouldn’t work.
Therefore, the cloud brings together a large number of computers to operate a single application.
And anything that is stored anywhere other than your local hard drive—on your computer—is
labeled as being in the clouds.
One of the main advantages of cloud computing is it allows companies to send files to customers
without having to send an actual CD. For example, if you are using a Dell laptop and you need to
get an upgrade for your Bios. Instead of having to have it sent to you, Dell can provide that to
you right through the Internet. If Dell wants to sell you a new piece of software, they can do that
right through the Internet and have it installed without needing the CD. It saves time and it saves
money.

FUTURE OF CLOUD COMPUTING MEANS FOR THE WEB DESIGNER

Cloud computing is an emerging technology which is revolutionizing the way we interact with the web.
The ability to hold information anywhere across the world throughout multiple servers provides tools
and resources never available to us before.

ut what does this mean for the common web designer? With so many terms and tools to be found
everywhere, how do we sort through the mess? In this article, we’ll be going over some
groundbreaking ideas into what the future of cloud computing may hold.
We’ll also be taking a look at a few examples of everyday applications currently working within
the cloud. Combining the desktop interface with rapidly growing mobile technology, we can get
a glimpse into some wondrous possibilities for the future of the Internet.

WORKING

Before we delve too deep into the changing technology for web designers, we should define
some concepts about cloud computing itself.

Currently the structure of the World Wide Web is held in servers via a client-server response.
Physical machines connected throughout the entire world hold digital files for each website on
their hard drives. Once queried by a user’s browser the server will respond back with whatever
information is needed to properly display the website. When discussing the cloud we’re talking
about a collective set of computers utilizing different resources from each one, in this way
creating a very powerful virtual server.

This allows us to transcend the limits of physical servers and hardware. Running applications
and software from many separate physical machines means a much easier computation load on
each one. This means our web is churning out information faster and quicker than ever before.

This also implies we’re allowing for much more powerful software and tools to be run in a
simple web browser, such as Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome. We’re only limited by our
Internet connections and browser capabilities, both of which are changing and growing quicker
than ever before!

Practical In-browser Image Editing

Adobe produces the de-facto multimedia software used globally by designers and developers
alike. Their software suites contain powerful image editing and vector graphics software with
innovative tools and rendering engines. Most users have a high-tier computer just to run the
programs efficiently.

However, imagine never needing to process these computations on your own computer. Imagine
if it were possible to run software similar to Adobe Photoshop directly in your web browser,
where all of the computation would be handled in the cloud.

It seems a bit far-fetched for today’s Internet, but it is a plausible idea. With software companies
facing heavy profit losses through piracy, a logical next step would be to simply not licence out
their software at all. Instead offer it free through a cloud of computers and charge per use.
Although this isn’t a solid business model ready to be launched, this is something web designers
may be able to see manifest in the next few years.

You can already see many implementations of smaller apps today. Aviary offers the most
complete suite of tools for image editing and vector creation, there are also many smaller tools
like the web 2.0 Stripe Generator, which allows you to create a striped background on-the-fly.
Similarly favicon.cc is a favicon generator worked completely in-browser.
Here are some more online image editors Top 15 Web Based Image Editors

Now you can’t truly compare these simple applications to the power of running an entire design
suite within your browser. But once we start seeing some changes in how cloud computing
works we may not be too far off.

Where are we in Present Day Computing?

All of this futuristic technology may seem enticing and great, but you have to keep everything in
perspective. Where are we currently in the timeline of cloud computing technology? Where can
we expect to see serious growth in the next few years?

Well currently the leader in cloud computing is by far Google. They actively develop many
applications held throughout their own server farms, all with practical testing in Google Labs.
Many business wouldn’t even be able to run without them.

Accessing GMail and Google Contacts

When creating a Google account you are automatically signed up for all of their services. This
means your username and password are the same for Google Reader, GTalk, and Google Mail,
among all their other services.

GMAIL is the hottest cloud application to date. To begin with it’s a revolutionary mail client
compared to any others (Yahoo!, MSN). Threaded replies, Ajax auto-updates, and a global
contact list are just a few of the key features Google offers.

The real prize comes with their use of cloud computing to store e-mail messages and
conversations throughout the world. This allows you to log into any computer and still have
access to all of your e-mails and attachments from previous conversations.

Not only this, but existing users of GMail will know about the allotted server space assigned to
each account. Towards the bottom of your GMail page you can see a message explaining how
much space you’re currently taking up and how much is still free. At the time of writing this
article Google has mine set to just under 7500MB of free space – or just about 7.5GB.

This revolutionizes the way we do business. Never worrying about losing important attachments
or information from clients is a great feeling, all thanks to Google’s intelligent use of cloud
computing.

Moving Docs and Spreadsheets into the Clouds

The next big step in cloud computing came when Google announced a revolutionary service:
Google Docs. This allows anybody with an account to hold their own “folder” in the cloud with
online documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.

These can be shared to anybody around the world, and you also have the ability to access them
from any computer. This even includes mobile browsing such as the iPhone or Android devices.

Google has essentially launched a free version of Microsoft Office hosted online and accessible
anywhere in the world – talk about groundbreaking technology. The doors are just starting to
open for the Google Docs team. There’s so much innovation and potential to be added into this
area of the web, and it’s a tell-tale sign showcasing the power of our expanding cloud.

There’s a lot of information out there about the potential for cloud computing. As we move into
the ever changing future we can see how technology is advancing in our lives every day, and it’s
only getting more powerful.

As web designers we frequently find ourselves caught up in the every day workings of the
Internet. Keeping up on RSS feeds or updating Twitter have turned into simple tasks with the
ease of access using mobile computing.

How many years can we expect before we see drastic changes in the way we work online? What
new technology will drastically change the current web design market? Cloud computing looks
very hopeful, but ultimately we’ll just have to wait and see.