My friend’s uncle, an accountant in a major seminary, was very worried about handling the Local Sponsorships—a scheme that was initiated to avoid seeking financial help from abroad. I joined my friend in trying to help his uncle to handle it easily. After about three weeks of discussions and clarifications, he was happy to find a solution—to use Cloud Computing technology and maintain the data of the sponsors, which can be accessed through the Internet (or later by Mobile App) to get notifications and reminders regularly. This solution helps the organization to have all the records, such as, demographic details, sponsorship scheme (tenure and amount), mode of payment, including online transfer, etc. It also helps the users (the sponsors) to track their sponsorship, receive automatic reminders, regular notifications, do online payment, track their beneficiary, and so on.
In other words, Cloud Computing helps the organization directly in a big way to maintain the information, which can be accessed through the I nternet, by them and the end-users (customer, stakeholder, or users of the services). Users are only at the receiving end of the services rendered by the company which uses Cloud Computing technology.
Cloud Computing is NOT merely a storing and retrieving option. If that is all we need, we can:
- Use storage services like Google Drive, Dropbox, Sync, OneDrive, pCloud, Canto DAM, SkyDrive, SugarSync, etc. All these are operated with Cloud Computing technology.
- Store the files in the space available in our own website.
- Send the file to an email, where the sender and the receiver will have a copy of it.
What is Cloud Computing?
Ninety-five percent of people who are already using Cloud Computing, like online banking and social networks, do not know that they are using Cloud Computing.
Cloud Computing is the use of hardware and software to deliver a service over a network (typically the Internet). Well-known providers of Cloud Computing are Internet giants like Amazon, Facebook, Google’s Gmail, and so on. With Cloud Computing, users can access files and use applications hosted by providers from any device that can be accessed through Internet.
Traditional computing stores data on your PC’s local hard drive, whereas the data in the cloud is stored on many physical and/or virtual servers hosted by a third-party service provider.
Types
A PUBLIC CLOUD is based on the standard Cloud Computing framework which consists of files, applications, storage and services available to the public via the internet. Gmail is an example of a Public Cloud.
A PRIVATE CLOUD is comprised of files, applications, storage and services that are implemented and protected within a corporate firewall, under the control of a corporate IT department, only for their own use. A Private Cloud is only for a particular group like a company, family circle, friends’ group, etc., and not for the use of all the public.
Pros and Cons
Some of the merits of Cloud Computing technology are cost-saving, high speed, back-up and restoring of data, automatic software integration, reliability, mobility, unlimited storage capacity, location and device independence, web-based control and interface, low-cost software, and so on.
In spite of the fast-growing technological development, every technology has its own demerits. Cloud Computing too has some demerits, such as, lack of internet connectivity, variation in performance, security threat, and lack of connection.
Tips
For Educational Institutions: Some of the educational institutions are already on to Cloud Computing technology, where the management, staff and parents, as well as the students, are using various methodologies by way of getting status updates and monitoring information through SMS, Email, WhatsApp, Mobile Apps and Internet. It covers areas like admission, fees, time-table, attendance, exams, marks, library, announcements, payroll, accounts, communication, and other information.
For Major Superiors of Religious Congregation: As almost all the management or administrative departments of the corporate world use Cloud Computing technology, Religious Congregation too can use it for handling their resources. It is also good to move on to modern technologies for digital archives, documentation, communication, websites, etc. All these can be done on a Private Cloud and not necessarily on a Public Cloud. It is also possible to make only some of it available to the public, while reserving other areas to members only.
Rocky
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