In this blog post, we’ll explore the concept and evolution of cloud computing, its applications in the enterprise, and its future potential—as exemplified by cloud gaming—through everyday examples.
What Is Cloud Computing, and How Is It Used?
Today is a very important day for Mr. A (22, Business Administration), a student at a university in Seoul. It’s the day of the final presentation for his group project. Although he practiced the presentation late into the night, Mr. A enters the classroom looking nervous. His groupmate, Mr. B (23, Computer Science), asks him to show the final revised presentation materials. After rummaging through his bag for a while, A’s face turns pale. Oh no! He had left the USB drive containing the precious final presentation materials plugged into his computer at home. Unlike A, who is at a loss, B, looking completely unfazed, pulls out his smartphone and downloads something from the web. It was the presentation material A had sent him earlier, but it wasn’t the final revised version. This was because Mr. A had made a few changes the night before. However, after hearing about the changes, Mr. B opened the document online and made the corrections immediately. Before the presentation, Mr. A downloaded the presentation materials again from the web using the classroom computer and found that all the changes had been applied. In the end, Mr. A was able to successfully complete his presentation.
As shown here, a key feature of cloud computing is that, as long as there is an internet connection, users can access various services and data without being significantly constrained by location or device. It was precisely thanks to cloud computing that Mr. A was able to deliver his presentation successfully. Cloud computing refers to a computing environment in which users access computing resources—such as servers—via the Internet to receive various IT-related services, including data storage, networking, applications, and content. According to the widely adopted NIST definition, cloud computing is described as a model in which users access a shared pool of computing resources over a network and can rapidly provision or deprovision the resources as needed. In a cloud environment, information and applications are managed by the cloud infrastructure, and various devices—such as desktops, laptops, and smartphones—act as clients, allowing users to access them anytime, anywhere. A simple example is a webmail service like Gmail or Daum Mail. To use webmail, users do not need to purchase their own server, set up a server environment for webmail, keep it running at all times, or manage security and maintenance themselves. Furthermore, there is no need to store thousands of emails on a smartphone just to read them. Users simply access the web or a specific application via the Internet, enter their ID and password to log in, and then view only the emails they want.
Cloud Computing: A Revival of the Mainframe Era
However, cloud computing is not an entirely new technological concept. In fact, it is conceptually similar to methods used even before the advent of personal computers (PCs). When computers first appeared, they were extremely expensive, so only a select few could use them. Consequently, in the early days of computer adoption, data was processed and stored on mainframes, and most users accessed the central computer via terminals designed primarily for input and output functions. While this approach shared similarities with today’s cloud computing—in that multiple users shared central computing resources—its prominence declined significantly as PCs became widespread due to advances in semiconductor technology. However, with the advancement of information and communication technology and the widespread adoption of the Internet, the concept of the cloud regained attention. This was because, as the volume of data increased significantly, it often became more efficient to utilize external high-performance computers and shared computing resources rather than processing it solely on individual PCs. Unlike the traditional mainframe model, today’s cloud computing is characterized by the abstraction and network-based delivery of various computing resources—including not only hardware but also applications, data, platforms, operating systems, and virtualization. The term “cloud computing” was coined because these resources are provided to users in an invisible form—much like a cloud—regardless of their actual physical location.
A New Competitive Edge for Business: Enterprise Cloud Computing
In the example above, Mr. A not only stored data—in this case, presentation materials—on the server but also used document editing software provided by the server to modify it. Just as USB drives, which allow data modification, replaced traditional storage devices like CDs and DVDs, we have now entered an era where cloud storage—which enables users to download, upload, modify, and synchronize data anytime, anywhere, as long as they are connected to the internet—complements and replaces USB drives. However, such cloud storage is just one type of cloud computing. Cloud computing services can be provided not only to individual consumers but also to businesses. This is referred to as enterprise cloud computing.
Mr. C (42), who runs a small-to-medium-sized business, came up with an excellent idea while brainstorming ways to increase his company’s revenue. However, to implement that project, he needed a specific business application running on a server. Enterprise software can be quite costly. And that’s not all—operating the storage and servers required for it demands a data center equipped not only with computers but also with office space, power, cooling, bandwidth, and a network. Furthermore, setting up the servers requires a team of experts to install, configure, and operate the infrastructure, including the operating system, virtual machines, databases, and security. And this entire environment must be continuously maintained and supported. In essence, running a single application requires a significant capital investment. Enterprise cloud computing addresses precisely this issue. Unlike traditional business applications installed on-premises, enterprise cloud computing leverages the computing resources of data centers that specialize in providing cloud services and delivers them to users—in this case, businesses—via a network. Since companies can reduce the burden of purchasing, installing, maintaining, and upgrading all necessary software and hardware themselves, they can lower not only initial costs but also long-term operating costs. Furthermore, because cloud service providers centrally manage the infrastructure and services, it is relatively easy to incorporate new features related to performance or security into the service as they become available. Due to these characteristics, cloud computing has established itself as one of the key approaches for managing corporate IT infrastructure and application operations today.
“Battlefield” in the Palm of Your Hand? Cloud Computing with Limitless Potential
With today’s significant advancements in network technology, cloud computing exists in various other forms as well. In the case of cloud gaming services, the computing resources required to run games—such as graphics cards, memory, and processors—are housed on cloud servers, and a significant portion of game-related computations is processed on those servers. The game footage processed by the server is transmitted to the user’s device via the network. In short, gamers enjoy the game by receiving the game footage just as they would when streaming a video. This allows users to enjoy games—typically run on high-performance PCs or consoles—via the cloud even on small devices like smartphones. In the past, playing “Battlefield” on a smartphone—much like playing “Anipang” on a bus or subway—seemed like a vision of the future, but now that cloud gaming services are actually available, this way of playing games has become a reality.
However, cloud gaming is still subject to technical constraints such as network bandwidth, latency, and connection stability. Nevertheless, as network and server technologies continue to advance, it is likely that not only cloud gaming but also a wider variety of cloud services will be developed. In particular, with the widespread adoption of high-speed internet and cloud infrastructure, users can now access a variety of services without having to equip their own devices with all the necessary computing resources, and these changes will continue to make the IT environment and our daily lives more convenient in the future.
