The Concept of Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing is the most progressive way of providing IT services which eliminates the need for the users to worry about information technologies.
 
The essence of this concept is the transition from owning IT infrastructure (servers, hardware, software, etc.) towards procuring services from vendors regarding the actual needs; IT outsource, to put it the other way. 
 

The main features of Cloud Computing:
- Automated service ordering and management (self-support);
- Dynamic services: flexibility (time, place) and scalability (scope);
- Pay-as-you-go billing model;
- Virtual services: user is not constricted by the underlying technical infrastructure.
 

Those principles are not new. IT departments have been focusing on them for many years. Procurement of consultations, telecommunication services, hardware hosting in modern data centers of progressive vendors, outsource of IT experts – those all are the early developments of Cloud Computing. However, today’s notion of this concept was formed after the new technologies, such as, broadband internet and virtualization solutions, have been developed and gained ground.