What is cloud computing?

Cloud computing?is on-demand access, via the internet, to?computing resources—applications, servers (physical servers?and?virtual servers),?data storage,?development tools, networking capabilities, and more—hosted at a remote?data center?managed by a?cloud services?provider (or CSP). The CSP makes these resources available for a monthly subscription fee or bills them according to usage.

Compared to traditional on-premises IT, and depending on the cloud services you select, cloud computing?helps do the following:

• Lower IT costs
• Improve agility and time-to-value
• Scale more easily and cost-effectively

This includes some form of?virtualized?IT infrastructure—servers, operating system software, networking, and other infrastructure that’s abstracted, using special software, so that it can be pooled and divided irrespective of physical hardware boundarie.