A style of Computing, not a Technology Also been called utility computing, or grid computing.

Developed to overcome the associated problems with normal computing like unused computing capacity, required some one to babysit the servers and associated energy costs. You use only what you need, and pay for only what you use. Caters to the following computing needs Dynamism Need to configure & your provider will take care of fluctuating demand. Abstraction OS, the plug-ins, web security or the software platform. Everything should be in place without any worry. Resource Sharing flexible architecture where the resources will expand or contract with little configuration changes. Cloud computing can be loosely defined as using scalable computing resources provided as a service from outside your environment on a pay-per-use basis

Definition

Cloud Stack / Cloud services Model Cloud Services can be dived into 3 stacks Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) Platform as a Service (PaaS) Software as a Service (SaaS) IaaS: Base layer of the cloud stack. It serves as a foundation for the other two layers, for their execution. Virtualization is the keyword behind this layer and your application will be executed on a virtual computer you can select a configuration of CPU, memory and storage that is optimal for your application. The IaaS provider supplies the whole cloud infrastructure i.e. servers, routers, hardware based loadbalancing, firewalls, storage and other network equipment. The customer buys these resources as a service on an as needed basis

Advantages: Cloud is elastic in nature, your IaaS provider can respond quickly to scale up or down Pay only for the resources your actually consume.

PaaS: Delivery of a computing platform over the web. Enables you to create web applications quickly, without the cost and complexity of buying and managing the underlying software/hardware. Advantage: Hassles like setting up hosting, servers, databases, user interaction process and frameworks are prepackaged. Developer gets full control of the application development and deployment. Developers could create custom web applications and deliver it quickly

SaaS: Also referred to as "on-demand software Software and its associated data are hosted centrally (typically in the internet / cloud and are accessed by users using a thin client normally using a web browser over the Internet. Advantages: Faster and cost effective. Paid on a subscription basis, no license / installation hassles. Upgrades / fixes would be taken care by SaaS provider.