There are a number of terms out there that seem to be used interchangeably at different times and in different places, but the challenge lies in the difference between Cloud-based and Web-based applications.
There’s “online application” vs. “Web-based application” vs.”Web application” vs.”Cloud Computing application” vs.”Cloud-based application” (and probably more). “Online application” redirects on Wikipedia to “Web application,” so that’s fine and that takes care of “Web-based application.”
I’m going to explain what I think about that in an upcoming post but first I have to tweak the definition I have of Cloud-based computing. There might be technical differences between them when examined closely but it is the interchangeability that I, just a guy grappling with technology, find confusing.
So I was looking at the part in the “details” section where I talk about how I understand the Cloud and I think that by tweaking it I can roll all those definitions into one – the one I have used throughout this blog: “Cloud-based application.”
Just remember this is not a technical definition of Cloud computing (if you want one of those, you could, for example, check out the NIST version.) It’s just an attempt at it from the perspective of a guy grappling with technology.
So here we go:
Old Version – v1.0
So how do you understand the Cloud?
The simplest definition of Cloud-based applications and Cloud-stored data I can put together (that relates to an individual’s use of it) is that they are applications and data I use that are not on my Internet-connected computer but somewhere on other computers connected to the Internet (in “the Cloud”) which I connect to over the Internet. So that’s what I’m going to use.
So examples for me would be Gmail, Blogger and Second Life.
In terms of hardware and software I think of it like this; “all the computers (excluding my own) with associated hardware and software potentially accessible to me via the Internet on which I can run and/or access applications, including multi-user applications.”
Here’s the new version of that section. Essentially what I’ve done is replace “Internet” with the wider term “network” and added Facebook as an example.
New Version – v1.1
So how do you understand the Cloud?
The simplest definition of Cloud-based applications and Cloud-stored data I can put together (that relates to an individual’s use of it) is that they are applications and data I use that are not on my network-connected device but somewhere (I may or may not know exactly where) on other computing and storage devices connected to the network (in “the Cloud”) which I connect to over the network. So that’s what I’m going to use.
So examples for me of a Cloud-based application would be Gmail, Blogger, Facebook and Second Life.
In terms of hardware and software I think of it like this; “all devices (excluding my own) with associated hardware and software potentially accessible to me via the network on which I can run and/or access applications, including multi-user applications.”
Then I stripped a bit out which doesn’t make sense any more (actually, looking back, I don’t think it ever did) and then I have this:
Since many people may attach to a particular application at the same time, I can use a user id/password combination to uniquely identify myself to it..
So what I’ve got is a network over *there* with computing and storage devices attached to it with data and applications on them and over *here* I have me with my network-attached device with an application on it that lets me connect to the network and hence to those applications and data.
In the next post I’ll try working with it. The way it’s written now I think it can handle massive multi-user applications (like Facebook) attached to a massive network (the Internet) to small multi-user applications running on small private networks (an example of which is, I think, Tonido). So we’ll see. The goal, remember, is to wrap all those definitions into this one.
It might be that someone looking at that definition says, “Well, I’ve done that for a long time and never called it Cloud-based computing.” To which my answer is,” Absolutely. If you don’t want to call what you do Cloud-based computing go ahead. This is only my definition after all. Although, I have to say, for me it’s a nice definition because it cleans up for me the confusion.” (see next post).
updated 3/18/10 revised to make the post clearer – added first paragraph.
