Hui Zheng
IT Department
George Mason University

Introduction

As we step into the modern world of the 21th century, education, government and business have evolved to a stage of endless possibilities. Computers are required to perform mass amount of processes today for many purposes. Institutions like our federal government, universities, and private companies utilize computers to run classes, payrolls, accounts, and many other services. The problem was that users have to access that information at certain locations. Problem is created when information has to be accessed from anywhere, but it was denied. Cloud computing was created to end the problem. What is cloud computing? "Cloud computing is a means of providing computer facilities via the Internet, but that is only half of the picture. The other half is that it is also a means of accessing those same computer facilities via the Internet from different locations." (Katzan). Cloud computing provided us a better and efficient way to access our information in a timely manner. Users wouldon't be limited to the same computer for software and information, instead they can access what they need from anywhere on the globe where internet is available. The significance of cloud computing for organizations and users are they don't have to prepay the costs of hardware, software, networks and other components. The major benefits of cloud computing are it reduces cost, increases space, more flexible, and efficient.