It is nothing but a style of computing which relates to the internet services. People need not be an expertise in the cloud it is getting support from. We generally use cloud notation for the internet or network symbol and this is where the named cloud computing evolved.
Cloud computing services are mainly classified into three main categories.
Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS),
Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).
Cloud computing has a very distinct characteristics that the traditional hosting. This services are sold on demand and are very elastic. A user can but it for a hour or a minute also. This services are fully managed by the provider..
The cloud can be a private cloud or a public cloud. A private cloud means it is a proprietary cloud which provides hosted services to limited number clients. A public cloud sells services to anyone on the internet.
Lets have a look at its characteristics:
Agility: Improved agility as users are able to re-provision technological resources very rapidly.
Cost is reduced to a great extent
It allows users to access systems using a web browsers irrespective of the location. i.e it allows device independence
Multi-tenancy: It allows to share the resource amongst many users which helps in centralization, peak-load capacity and better utilization of resources and better efficiency.
Reliability: It improves due to use of multiple redundant sites.
Scalability and security: Loosely coupled architecture and centralization of data gives this added characteristics to it.