Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is a technology that uses the internet and central remote servers to maintain data and applications. Cloud computing allows consumers and businesses to use applications without installation and access their personal files at any computer with internet access. This technology allows for much more efficient computing by centralizing storage, memory, processing and bandwidth.

Cloud computing is broken down into three segments: "infrastructure", "platforms" and "applications".  Each segment serves a different purpose and offers different products for businesses and individuals around the world:

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS):   It΄s the demanded infrastructure for the provisioning of cloud servers.  Basic unit of IaaS is a Cloud Server without whom none cloud service would be possible.  What makes Interworks unique is the provisioning of not  just a Virtual Private Server (VPS) but a Cloud Server with capabilities like failover, escalating and cluster (the capability of combining cloud servers so a farm structure with active/passive or active/active cluster is possible) and dedicated resources (for example dedicated memory versus shared memory that is used by virtual private servers).   

Platform as a Service:  PaaS provides all the infrastructure needed to run applications over the Internet. Interworks provides PaaS composed by two sections.  The first section includes the operational platform WebServe. With Webserve, performing administration and distand parametralization of IaaS as well as SaaS applications instaled in Iaas is feasible.   The second section includes APIs (Application Programming Interfaces), supporting connectivity of a system (eg web service) with server capabilities. For example, an IT Manager doesn't have to set up a mail server from scratch, but he can use the specific API of PaaS to meet his need.

 Software as a Service.   Its software applications operating as a service via the internet, also knomn as On Demand or Web Based or On line Software.   Interworks, as Microsoft S+S Incubation Center (MIC) provides SaaS Applications of ISVs hosted at MIC (SoftOne, Regate, Syscom, Algosystems, IPS, Impact). 

The characteristics that Interworks' Cloud Computing is offering are: 

• Scalability.   The ability for a business or technology to accept increased volume without impacting the contribution margin. 
  
• Virtualization.  The creation of a virtual machine (server, storage device, network resources). 
  
• Pay as you go / pay as you grow.  Payment depending on the demand of resources and the growth of the enterprise.
  
• Multi-tenancy, which securely separates different applications and data sets on the same infrastructure.
• Elasticity.  The ability to scale up or down easily  the resources required to meet your needs and pay only for what you use.
  
• Load and Tenant Balancing, is dividing the amount of work that a server has to do between two or more servers in order to avoid overloading.
  
• Availability.  Uninterruptible systems operations even in case of software or hardware failure, allowing for minimum or no disruption of provisioned services.  
  
• Security:  Maximum security for the uninterrupted operation of applications without any problem.
  
• Operability:  Easy management of cloud computing.
• Metering: Continuous monitoring on the usage consumption of customers which may prevent from significant revenue loss.
• Global:  Ability to use cloud services from anywhere.
• Simple APIs:  Facilitating the development of applications used for cloud services.