Cloud computing has been dubbed a revolutionary technology of the information era. Internet giants such as Microsoft， Google and IBM are all investing in the cloud business. The technology is also part of China’s national strategy for the development of the next generation of the IT industry. There will be a 60 billion yuan cloud computing market in China in 2012， as estimated by the Internet Society of China.

The concept of cloud computing

But what does the popular buzzword of “cloud computing” mean? To put it simple， it means storing data， software and various kinds of services on remote computer servers that can be reached through an Internet connection. Users can access， change and interact with the data and services anywhere and at anytime as long as they have a connection. With everything carried by the cloud system， they will not have to store data on a hard drive， or install software on their PCs to run them.

And chances are， many people are already using it， by way of Google’s Gmail service， social networking sites like Facebook or photo-sharing site Flickr， all of which store digital information on data centers all over the world.

Dou Shuihua， deputy manager of ICT products of ZTE Corporation some of the major argued that “cloud computing” is a term coined from the perspective of the suppliers， and “cloud service” is a more appropriate term from the perspective of the users.

Major cloud services

Amazon， Salesforce.com， Google， IBM， Microsoft are cloud providers. They provide online data centers， software and applications to customers so that enterprises don’t need to establish their own servers. The data and software can be accessed via the internet with laptops， desktops， mobile phones， tablets and televisions. The following are the major cloud services in the world.

Amazon: Amazon Web Services(AWS)， which includes Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)， Simple Storage Service (S3)， SQS， and Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)

Google: Applicaions for Business(Gmail， Docs， Calendar etc.)， App Engine (development platform)

Salesforce.com: Sales Cloud 2(CRM)， Service Cloud 2 (support)， Force.com (development Platform)， Chatter (collaboration)

IBM - Smart Business Development and Test Cloud， CSP2 (Telecom)， LotusLive(collaboration)， Tivoli Live(infrastructure)， WebSphere Cast Iron Cloud Integration (Middleware， SaaS).

Microsoft: Azure

Apple’s iCloud service can be used as a simple example of cloud service. Snap a photo on your iPhone and it pops up on your Mac or Windows PC. Edit a document in the Pages app on a Mac， and that same edit appears on the Pages app on your iPhone. Buy a song on iTunes on your Mac， and on your iPhone you can re-download it; same with e-books you buy through iBooks. Additionally， iCloud enables automatic wireless backups for iOS devices. Each Apple customer gets 5 GB of free space for backups， documents and e-mail; the photos， music and books don’t count toward the 5 GB. Development trend

It is widely agreed that cloud computing has a promising future. Traditional PC makers such as IBM Corp and Hewlett-Packard(HP) Corp have for years been shifting their businessemphasis toward software development， especially cloud computing. In practice， using clouds to replace physical servers has become increasingly popular among enterprises and even governments.

Cloud platforms and services are getting more mature and sophisticated at a very rapid speed. The cloud is revolutionizing computing as businesses and organizations shift from clientserver model to cloud computing. In the next years， technology experts and users expect to ‘live mostly in the cloud’ as they work through cyberspace-based applications accessed from networked devices.

Currently， cloud platforms are still emerging， and there are still plenty of issues， from the typical concerns about management and security， to portability of applications and data from one cloud provider to another.

Many are concerned about the safety of storing data online. In exchange for convenience， the technology could make personal data less secure.

“One reason you should not use web applications to do your computing is that you lose control. If you use a proprietary program or somebody else’s web server， you’re defenseless. You’re putty in the hands of whoever developed that software，” Richard Stallman， founder of the Free Software Foundation， told the Guardian.

Therefore， many large companies are deploying “private clouds” that are built within their organizations， to make their data centers more efficient. Cloud computing overheated

in China

In April 2011， the government of Chongqing became the first to announce its plan to invest 40 billion yuan in a cloud computing center that will be the largest in Asia. The plan is called “Yun Duan” (Top of Cloud). Then Shanghai， Beijing， Shenzhen and Guangzhou all followed suit. Shanghai plans to build a “Asia Pacific Cloud Computing Center”， its plan is called “Yun Hai” (Ocean of Cloud)， Beijing has a plan called “Xiang Yun”(Cloud of Blessing)， Shenzhen has a plan called “Kun Yun” (Cloud of Fly- ing Fish)， Guangzhou has a plan called “Tian Yun” (Cloud of Sky)， Ningbo has “Xing Yun” (Galaxy Cloud)， Wuxi has “Yun Gu” (Cloud Valley)， Hangzhou has “Yun Chao Shi” (Cloud Supermarket) ……

According to a report from China High Tech Herald， even poor cities like Lanzhou and Langfang joined the “cloud making carnival”. Langfang， a third tier city in Hebei province announced its plan for a cloud storage center that is at least tuice the size of the largest existing cloud storage center in the world， which is in Chicago.

Since then， investigative journalists have found evidences that suggest these projects are often launched before the officials figure out what cloud computing is about， and many of the projects consist of a lot of commercial property and few element of technology research. For example， a report from Economic Observer says that an unnamed cloud computer center has so few customers that only the staff of the front desk are receiving their salary， and its technology team has to make a living somewhere else. But it does not prevent it from being an “Image Project” which local government officials showcase to visiting colleagues. No wonder Li Deyi， academian of China Academy of Engineers， recently angrily said， “Cloud computing is a green way of calculating， it’s not a competition of scale， equipment or warehouse. Development of cloud computing cannot be turned into a game for land and capital possession.”

Facing more and more critical views from experts and media upon large cloud computing zones with expensive infrastructure but little content， the government is putting more emphasis on making the cloud computing centers useful. Many technology companies were given priority and subsidy for entering the cloud computing zones.

Insiders pointed out that cloud computing in China is still in its infancy when people are focusing on infrastructure and Internet Data Center， instead of data， software and service-the essence of cloud computing.