“The promise of Cloud Computing is primarily the following key technical characteristics:
- The ability to create the illusion of infinite capacity; the performance is the same if scaled for one, to a hundred, or a thousand users with consistent service-level characteristics.
- Abstraction of the infrastructure so applications are not locked into devices or locations.
- Pay-as-you-go usage of the IT service; you only pay for what you use and with no or minimal up-front investment costs. You typically just use the service through a connection and device.
- The service is on-demand; able to scale up and scale down with near instant availability. Typically, no forward planning forecast is required.
- Access to applications and information from any access point.
But this is only half the story. These technical characteristics can also be found in non-disruptive technology solutions. The rate of change and magnitude of cost reduction and specific technical performance impact of Cloud Computing are not just incremental, but can give a five to ten times order of magnitude improvement.”
Click here and Check this great summary by TheOpenGroup.org