What is the cloud?

Cloud Computing

A technological approach where computing resources are provisioned in a shareable way, so that lots of users ge twhat they need, when they need it.

Hardware Virtualization

Core concept of how cloud computing works.
It allows the concept of a physical machine and a logical machine to be abstracted away from each other.

Virtualization

A single physical machine, called a host, could run many individual virtual instances called guests.

Hypervisor

A piece of software that runs and manages virtual machines, while also offering these guests a virual operating platform that's indistinguishable from actual hardware.

Private Cloud

Used by a single large corporation and generally physically hosted on its own premises.

Hybrid Cloud

A term used to describe situations where companies might run things like their most sensitive proprietary technologies on a private cloud, while entrusting their less sensitive servers to a public cloud.

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Everything as a Service

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

You shouldn't worry about building your own network or own servers.
You just pay someone else to provide you with that service.

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

A subset of cloud computing where a platform is provided for customers to run their services.

Software as a Service (SaaS)

A way of licensing the use of software to others while keeping that software centrally hosted and managed.

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Cloud Storage

In a cloud storage sytem, a customer contracts a cloud storage provider to keep their data secure, accessible, and available.