What is cloud computing?


There are many different definitions of cloud computing.
About.com:
Cloud Computing is a relatively new term that conveys the use of information technology services and resources that are provided on a service basis. According to a 2008 IEEE paper, “Cloud Computing is a paradigm in which information is permanently stored in servers on the internet and cached temporarily on clients that include desktops, entertainment centers, table computers, notebooks, wall computers, hand-helds, sensors, monitors, etc.”

wikipedia.org:
Cloud computing is Internet- ("cloud-") based development and use of computer technology ("computing").In concept, it is a paradigm shift whereby details are abstracted from the users who no longer have need of, expertise in, or control over the technology infrastructure "in the cloud" that supports them.Cloud computing describes a new supplement, consumption and delivery model for IT services based on the Internet, and it typically involves the provision of dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources as a service over the Internet.
The term cloud is used as a metaphor for the Internet, based on the cloud drawing used to depict the Internet in computer network diagrams as an abstraction of the underlying infrastructure it represents.Typical cloud computing providers deliver common business applications online which are accessed from a web browser, while the software and data are stored on servers.
A technical definition is "a computing capability that provides an abstraction between the computing resource and its underlying technical architecture (e.g., servers, storage, networks), enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction."This definition states that clouds have five essential characteristics: on-demand self-service, broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity, and measured service.

Whatis.com:
Cloud computing is a computing paradigm in which tasks are assigned to a combination of connections, software and services accessed over a network. This network of servers and connections is collectively known as ‘the cloud.’ Computing at the scale of the cloud allows users to access supercomputer-level power. Users can access resources as they need them. For this reason, cloud computing has also been described as on-demand computing.

IBM:
An emerging IT delivery model—cloud computing—can significantly reduce IT costs & complexities while improving workload optimization and service delivery. Cloud computing is massively scalable, provides a superior user experience, and is characterized by new, internet-driven economics.
rackspacecloud.com:
You may have heard the term cloud computing or 'the Cloud,' but could you describe what it is? There are so many definitions flying around that you wouldn't be alone if you struggled to define it. Cloud computing is simply a set of pooled computing resources and services delivered over the web. When you diagram the relationships between all the elements it resembles a cloud.
Cloud computing—not to be confused with grid computing, utility computing, or autonomic computing—involves the interaction of several virtualized resources. Cloud servers connect and share information based on the level of website traffic across the entire network. Cloud computing is often provided "as a service" over the Internet, typically in the form of infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), or software as a service (SaaS).
Cloud computing customers don't have to raise the capital to purchase, manage, maintain, and scale the physical infrastructure required to handle drastic traffic fluctuations. Instead of having to invest time and money to keep their sites afloat, cloud computing customers simply pay for the resources they use, as they use them. This particular characteristic of cloud computing—its elasticity—means that customers no longer need to predict traffic, but can promote their sites aggressively and spontaneously. Engineering for peak traffic becomes a thing of the past.

smallbusinesscomputing.com:
Cloud computing is a computing model that lets you access software, server and storage resources over the Internet, in a self-service manner. Instead of having to buy, install, maintain and manage these resources on your own computer or device, you access and use them through a Web browser. Sometimes you might need to download a small piece of client code (i.e., software you install on your PC), but we'd still categorize that as cloud computing, because, for the most part, the real horsepower is supplied from the cloud.
At this point, many of you may be asking, I still don't get why they call this "cloud" computing — why not Internet computing? The answer is that techies have long used cloud icons to represent the data centers, technologies, infrastructure and services that comprise the Internet — and the metaphor has stuck.
You can perform just about any computing task in the cloud. It's likely that you already use several cloud solutions. For example, software-as-a-service (SaaS) or on demand business applications, such as salesforce.com, Intuit QuickBooks Online or Citrix GoToMeeting are cloud applications; you access them from your Web browser, but the software, processing power and storage reside in the cloud.
Free Web services — such as Google Gmail or Microsoft Hotmail, or FaceBook and Twitter, for that matter — are also examples of cloud computing. Likewise, if you use online backup solutions, you're storing your files in the cloud. And many managed services providers supply services such as network and security monitoring over the Internet. Another example is Amazon.com, which sells access to CPU cycles and storage as a service of its cloud infrastructure.

independent.co.uk:
Cloud computing is essentially the management and provision of applications, information and data as a service. These services are provided over the internet, often on a consumption-based model.
Cloud computing provides a convenient way of accessing computing services, independent of the hardware you use or your physical location. It relieves the need to store information on your PC, mobile device or gadget with the assumption that the information can be quickly and easily accessed via the net. Cloud computing also negates the need to download or install dedicated software on your own computer, freeing up onboard memory and reducing energy costs.

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