cloud computing

Cloud computing is a service that relies on a highly virtualized physical infrastructure. In the cloud, applications generally run on virtual servers that are independent of the underlying hardware. (Indeed, a virtual server environment for your application can be one of the services a cloud computing provider offers.) But there’s more to the cloud than virtualization, in that cloud computing is based on the concept of a “utility computing” service, where RAM, CPU cycles, storage and network bandwidth are commodities to be consumed on a “pay per use” basis, like water or electricity.

A cloud computing environment relies on many physical and virtual servers. It is configured in both hardware and software to provide high reliability and availability. Clouds are also very flexible and scalable, in the sense that an application can simply consume resources as needed.