A Survey Paper on Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is the biggest buzz in the computer world these days -- maybe too big of a buzz. Cloud computing means different things to different people. Cloud computing is not a small, undeveloped branch of IT. Research firm IDC thinks that cloud computing will reach $42 billion in 2012. You can do everything on cloud from running applications to storing data off-site. You can run entire operating systems on the cloud. This paper is for anyone who may have recently heard the term "cloud computing" for the first time and needs to know what it is and how it helps them.