McKinsey & Company defines cloud computing
Cloud Computing Definition: Clouds are hardware-based services offering compute, network and storage capacity where:
1) Hardware management is highly abstracted from the buyer
Characteristic: The underlying hardware can be anywhere geographically.
2) Buyers incur infrastructure costs as variable OPEX.
Characteristic: Enterprises incur no infrastructure capital costs, just operational costs and operational costs are incurred on a pay-per-use basis, with no contractual obligations.
3) Infrastructure capacity is highly elastic (up or down)
Characteristic: Capacity can be scaled up or down dynamically, and immediately, which differentiates from traditional hosting service providers.
See Also
- McKinsey: Data Centers Cheaper Than Cloud
Is cloud computing more expensive that running your own data center?
