For Noobs - What Is Cloud Computing?

From the dictionary, “Noob - A person who is inexperienced in a particular sphere or activity, especially computing or the use of the internet.” Those of us in Tech all have family and friends and acquaintances who are not in Tech. In fact, some of them may be complete noobs. My kids remind me of my noob status in their world almost daily…

Some of us get asked by noobs now and then to explain Cloud Computing. It is surprising that people ask this question since Cloud Computing is so commonplace these days and when it’s so easy to use the internet to search for an answer. It can’t be that hard to understand, right? Only after searching for “what is cloud computing?” is it clear that, yes, it is that hard to understand from the shoes of a noob. Explanations are flooded with words like “systems” and “servers” and “infrastructure” and “virtual” and “database” to name a few. The explinations also assume the reader has knowledge in 'All The Things.' Add all this together and eyes glaze over. How can we explain Cloud Computing to the average noob? Let's take a stab at it.

Computers make TVs work, cars work, tractors work, airplanes work, YouTube work, smartphones work, tablets work, the internet work, GPS work, media and entertainment work, etc. Computers need to be physically built and maintained. They also need to be instructed what to do. The instructions we give to computers are called software, programming, or code. Computers also need data because without data there is nothing to instruct. So computers instruct data what to do just like how a traffic signal instructs traffic what to do. Both are needed. It doesn’t make sense to make a bunch of instructions (software) for data to follow if there are no data.

Computers can be connected to other computers. This is called networking. The internet is a bunch of computers that are connected together. This means they can all work together like a team… each computer handling its own set of instructions and data.  Yet collectively they make something happen, like make a video appear on your phone or make your car run.

You know how in the movies a hacker sits behind a computer screen in their home and is able to access other computers that are far away? In short, a person is using their own computer to access some other remote computer system they do not own or maintain. Now, what if a company had a bunch of remote computers that people could rent for minutes, hours, days, weeks, or months at a time? That would mean people could sit at an office, home, or cafe and use their personal computers to access a bunch of remote computers. 

Imagine if you could control hundreds or thousands of remote computers? Imagine all the work they could do for you? Imagine if you never had to worry about building or maintaining the physical components of the hundreds or thousands of computers? That would mean you could focus just on the data and instructions and not waste your time and money on all the hardware. In a nutshell, this is the concept and benefit of Cloud Computing. A company like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, etc rents out tons of remote computers. The computers are physically located in their buildings. People pay for the ability to access the remote computers and use them to power stuff they create like games, apps, websites, smart TVs, etc

Sometimes it makes sense to rent out tons of remote computers (do some Cloud Computing), sometimes it doesn’t. It’s basically the Rent/Lease vs Buy decision with a bit of a Build vs Buy decision. In the end, Cloud Computing allows people to remotely access and use computers owned and maintained by others for a fee that is typically charged by the minute or hour. Well, now we hope you know. If you are a noob and this explination helped you, please leave a comment.