The Cloud defined in a sentence, 12 bullet points and 3 pictures

Kudos to someone at apps.gov or NIST for a great 2 minute summary of the cloud. My summary of the summary:

Cloud Computing Defined

Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort.
Cloud computing - picture by http://cloudtimes.org

Five Characteristics of Cloud Computing

  • On-demand, self service
  • Wide network access
  • Resources dynamically shared and allocated across customers
  • Elastic rapid provision and release
  • Metered service

Three Main Layers of Service Provided by Cloud Computing

  • Saas: Software as a service, for end-user consumers
  • Paas: Platform as a service, for software developers
  • Iaas: Infrastructure as a service, for system administrators

Two Axes of Choice for Cloud Deployment

  • Public vs Private
  • Outsourced vs In-house

And finally a bonus:

A History of Cloud Computing in Three Sentences

  • It began life as "Grid Computing" - a technology to solve large problems with parallel computing on widely distributed resources.
  • Grid computing matured to be offered as a metered service known as "utility computing".
  • This evolved via packaged solutions and self-service subscription over the internet into what is now known as Cloud Computing.

Condensed from http://info.apps.gov/content/what-cloud

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