There are circulating many definitions; one of the best comes from the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI)
"Cloud computing refers to the dynamically adjusted to needs Offer, benefits and billing of IT services through a network. Supply and use of this service take place immeditly via defined interfaces and protocols. The range of services offered as part of cloud computing covers the full range of information technology and includes, among other infrastructure (eg. As processing power, memory), platforms and software. "
What does this mean?
This at first glance somewhat bulky definition states the following:
Cloud computing is scalable. The users can use the services flexible and customized services.
Cloud Computing is provided over the network. In most cases this is made available to and used by multiple customers per account in a so-called "public cloud" in the services of a provider.
So cloud services are spread over many and changing locations - an important contribution to flexible working world and the availability of IT resources.
The services provided are diverse. They are divided into three models:
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS):. IT resources such as storage, processing power, or networks, are offered as a service. The client builds on these resources with the software of their choice on their own services.
Platform as a Service (PaaS): The provider also provides interfaces and the operating system in addition to the hardware. It offers the customer about multi-tenancy, database access, etc. The built on top of the platform software and application determined by the customer itself.
Software as a Service (SaaS): The customer uses in addition to hardware and platform and the software. SaaS vendors provide applications of all kinds are available, from simple e-mail client to fully integrated enterprise software. The customer administers the offices of the services he provides in the Web browser, while the provider takes care of the IT administration.
What about security?
Modern cloud providers have a high level of safety. The BSI has defined clear requirements for the security of cloud services, especially for data centers, servers, networks, applications, platforms, and the data itself. Security architectures and encryption provide even with sensitive data for adequate security.
Data lying in a professionally administered, German high-security data center, are better protected from abuse and inspection by third parties, as on a local server.
An example of application
An agency is working with the project team of internal and external employees. In the cloud, employees can (depending on their permissions) to store files, read and edit, without different versions start to circulate that from their different locations.
Through virtual customer or project files are all important information currently bundled and sorted before. All parties are characterized on the same, the current state of knowledge.
