Cloud Computing

The hot tech term these days is “Cloud Computing”; but what people do not realize is that it is actually not that new. Cloud Computing has been around for a few years now. Amazon, Apple and Google have brought Cloud Computing – specifically Software as a Serve (SaaS) to the public by introducing products like Google Doc. A company by the name of Citirx has allowed individuals to access their company software in a virtualized environment since its acquisition of XenSource in 1997. [1] With Citrix technology. a user is able to go to their company website and use Microsoft office, Quickbooks and many other pieces of software without having it installed on their system.
Some of the other popular virtualization software made by Citirx include Go To Meeting and Go To My PC. Both of which have revolutionized the tech industry. Go To Meeting allows for people to hold business meetings with associates around the world without having to leave the office. In fact, their latest version even allows the user to be part of a meeting from an Ipad. [2]
Go To My PC is a very popular item as well. It is used not just by companies but by individuals who need to access their programs, and files from anywhere, any time. The software is held on the individuals computer. In this situation, the PC holding the software and files would be considered the host or server computer. Since a remote user is access a program from a remote server this in fact could be considered cloud computing.
Some businesses worry about other companies getting a piece of their business. Citrix however seems to be doing just fine against Google, Amazon and Apples attempt at getting into the field. On July 12th Citrix showed they were willing to put up a fight by purchasing Cloud.com for a figure “less than $200 million”. [1] What will Cloud.com be used for? According the Citrix and Cloud.com, their site will be an“Open source cloud computing platform for building and managing private and public cloud infrastructure.” [3] Even though Cloud computing has been around since at least 1997, it is only today starting to pick up steam and hit the masses. Citrix was ahead of its time then, and with the purchase of Cloud.com they plan to stay on top.

[1] Citirx Makes a Run at the Cloud July 14th, 2011 http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/citrix-makes-a-run-at-the-cloud-07142011.html
[2] Online Meetings Made Easy http://www.gotomeeting.com/fec/online_meeting
[3] What Is Cloud.com? http://www.cloud.com/