Cloud computing
Cloud computing is "a paradigm for enabling network access to a scalable and elastic pool of shareable physical or virtual resources with self-service provisioning and administration on-demand," according to ISO.
[3] The history of cloud computing extends back to the 1960s, with the initial concepts of time-sharing becoming popularized via remote job entry (RJE).
[4] The "cloud" metaphor for virtualized services dates to 1994, when it was used by General Magic for the universe of "places" that mobile agents in the Telescript environment could "go".
[9][10] Cloud computing can enable shorter time to market by providing pre-configured tools, scalable resources, and managed services, allowing users to focus on their core business value instead of maintaining infrastructure.
Cloud platforms also offer managed services and tools, such as artificial intelligence, data analytics, and machine learning, which might otherwise require significant in-house expertise and infrastructure investment.
Cloud computing also facilitates collaboration, remote work, and global service delivery by enabling secure access to data and applications from any location with an internet connection.
Advanced redundancy strategies, such as cross-region replication or failover systems, typically require explicit configuration and may incur additional costs or licensing fees.
[14][15][16][17] Organizations with variable or unpredictable workloads, limited capital for upfront investments, or a focus on rapid scalability benefit from cloud adoption.
Startups, SaaS companies, and e-commerce platforms often prefer the pay-as-you-go operational expenditure (OpEx) model of cloud infrastructure.
Additionally, companies prioritizing global accessibility, remote workforce enablement, disaster recovery, and leveraging advanced services such as AI/ML and analytics are well-suited for the cloud.
In recent years, some cloud providers have started offering specialized services for high-performance computing and low-latency applications, addressing some use cases previously exclusive to on-premises setups.
[14][15][16][17] On the other hand, organizations with strict regulatory requirements, highly predictable workloads, or reliance on deeply integrated legacy systems may find cloud infrastructure less suitable.
Additionally, companies with ultra-low latency requirements, such as high-frequency trading (HFT) firms, rely on custom hardware (e.g., FPGAs) and physical proximity to exchanges, which most cloud providers cannot fully replicate despite recent advancements.
Similarly, tech giants like Google, Meta, and Amazon build their own data centers due to economies of scale, predictable workloads, and the ability to customize hardware and network infrastructure for optimal efficiency.
This approach allows businesses to balance scalability, cost-effectiveness, and control, offering the benefits of both deployment models while mitigating their respective limitations.
Cloud users entrust their sensitive data to third-party providers, who may not have adequate measures to protect it from unauthorized access, breaches, or leaks.
Exclusions typically include planned maintenance, downtime resulting from external factors such as network issues, human errors, like misconfigurations, natural disasters, force majeure events, or security breaches.
Typically, customers bear the responsibility of monitoring SLA compliance and must file claims for any unmet SLAs within a designated timeframe.
In cases of service interruptions due to hardware failures in the cloud provider, the company typically does not offer monetary compensation.
Additionally, Eugene Schultz, chief technology officer at Emagined Security, said that hackers are spending substantial time and effort looking for ways to penetrate the cloud.
Recent research conducted in 2022 has revealed that the Trojan horse injection method is a serious problem with harmful impacts on cloud computing systems.
Pools of hypervisors within the cloud operational system can support large numbers of virtual machines and the ability to scale services up and down according to customers' varying requirements.
[41] The NIST's definition of cloud computing describes IaaS as "where the consumer is able to deploy and run arbitrary software, which can include operating systems and applications.
Cloud providers typically bill IaaS services on a utility computing basis: cost reflects the number of resources allocated and consumed.
In the PaaS models, cloud providers deliver a computing platform, typically including an operating system, programming-language execution environment, database, and the web server.
[51] Proponents claim that SaaS gives a business the potential to reduce IT operational costs by outsourcing hardware and software maintenance and support to the cloud provider.
[53] Serverless computing allows customers to use various cloud capabilities without the need to provision, deploy, or manage hardware or software resources, apart from providing their application code or data.
Most public-cloud providers offer direct-connection services that allow customers to securely link their legacy data centers to their cloud-resident applications.
It differs from Multi cloud in that it is not designed to increase flexibility or mitigate against failures but is rather used to allow an organization to achieve more than could be done with a single provider.
[75] The European Commission's 2012 Communication identified several issues which were impeding the development of the cloud computing market:[76]: Section 3 The Communication set out a series of "digital agenda actions" which the Commission proposed to undertake in order to support the development of a fair and effective market for cloud computing services.
