Cloud computing is all the hype right now, but what does it really mean? Do you have to be sitting on a mountain with a computer among the clouds, or on a plane with a laptop? Does it work when it's sunny? Can you actually type on a cloud computing keyboard?

Cloud computing is pretty big. And it's growing bigger every day.

There are basically three layers to cloud computing. Companies use them differently based on what they offer. At the bottom is the foundation, the infrastructure. This is where things start and where people begin to build. This is the layer where cloud hosting lives.

So, let's talk about hosting in the cloud, which is an older concept that, due to technology advances, is finally starting to work really well. Let's say you're a company and you have a website and the website has a lot of short conversations that are exchanged between members.

You start with a few users talking to each other and they start telling their friends about your site and they tell their friends and their friends tell their friends and so on. You are successful. But with success can come problems. Your equipment just can't keep up with the demand. Your service slows down and suddenly you are in trouble.

A few years ago, you would have put your website on a computer or server somewhere and when your success kicked in, you had to run around and buy or rent new servers, set them up, or have someone set them up for you. Hundreds of thousands of companies do this now. It costs a lot of money and it takes a lot of time. This is called hosting. It takes time to set them up and they cost quite a bit of money to keep running all the time.

You pay for these servers when you are using them and you pay for them when you are not using them, You really just want to build your service and improve your product, but instead of success, your customers are getting angry and your successful business is shrinking away.

Now you have a better option: cloud computing.

With cloud computing, you have access to cimputing power instantly when you need it. Put your website on a cloud server, just like you would put it on a dedicated server, and when people start visiting your site – if you suddenly need more computing power dedicated to your website, you can scale up as much as you need almost instantly. You get your computing power as you need it, from the cloud, on demand, and your customers stay happy without noticing any difference. And if your traffic dips back down, you can release your servers back into the cloude just as easily.

This is a major advantage, so I'll say it again.

When you need more computing power, you can get it instantly from the cloud. And when you're done with it, you release it back to the cloud.

Billing is easier too. It works the same you pay for gas or electricity. When you turn on a light, the meter starts running and you are billed for the electrical power that you take from the power grid. And when you are done with a light, you turn it off, and the meter stops running.

Or you can think of it like getting a taxi.

The meter runs when you ride, it runs much slower when you stop, and when you're done with your ride, you get out and pay your fare. Why buy the whole taxi when you can just pay for the trip?

But wait – how do you actually work with the cloud? You can't physically touch your hardware.

Easy – using your own personal computer, you remotely access your cloud server and control it. You can put whatever you need on it. Website or software or code, whatever, and then just disconnect it when you are done.

You never actually touch it physically.

The key with cloud computing is not to focus on the hardware. You just focus on your website or your software or code or whatever it is you're doing. Think of it like you would any cloud service.

Do you really care where, on what physical server your e-mail is hosted? Isn't it vastly more important how the service works and that it's reliable and stable and easy to use?

Here are three reasons why cloud hosting is becoming so popular.

One, scalability.

It's easy to grow or shrink to match your demand – if you need one, two, or ten servers, with cloud hosting you can easily grow or shrink the number based on what you need right now.

Two, cloud hosting is instant. The computing power is there when you need it. You just turn it on. Whatever you need is instantly available in the cloud, and when your need goes down, you can simply turn them off.

Three, save money. You only pay for what you use and not for having equipment sit around just in case you might need it. With cloud hosting, you can stop worrying about your hardware, you can work on building your business instead. Using cloud hosting will save you time and money and it's there for you to use instantly.