Explaining cloud computing

Definition of cloud computing

Cloud computing provides computer resources on demand, in a self-service manner. Its main characteristics are:

• Minimal initial investments in cost and time
• You only pay for what you actually use
• Nearly unlimited scalability

Technically, this is realized by using virtualization and web technologies to enable easily accessible multi-tenancy environments.

Types of clouds

There are several different types of clouds. For example, one devides between "private clouds" within individual companies and "public clouds" accessible to everybody, or "hybrid clouds" that combine the two.

Furthermore, the services offered by different cloud providers fall into different categories:

• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provides virtual machines, computing power and storage space.
• Platform as a Service (PaaS) provides software development and deployment environments.
• Software as a Service (SaaS) provides access to full software applications.

Advantages of cloud computing

Organisations of any type and size can profit from cloud computing:

• Computer resources are available at your fingertips and at minimal initial costs.
• Capital expenditures are substituted by operational expenditures, leading to potentially large cost savings.
• Over- or underutilization of resources is replaced by elastic scalability.
• No hassles anymore with maintaining hardware infrastructure, software updates, etc.
• Cloud providers run their data centers very efficiently, which protects the environment.