Cloud Definition - Strategy Advisory Group - "Bridging Capability Gaps (tm)"

Cloud Definition 1.0
Is cloud computing new?

It’s a bit of both new and old. Aspects of mainframe computing are relevant to a cloud computing architecture today. In addition, tremendous amount of virtualization technology is behind cloud computing.

"Cloud is the industrialization of IT" - IBM

There are many definitions for cloud. These are the Cloud Characteristics, according to IBM:

Service catalog
Easy-to-use customer interface to cloud services
Automation
Makes complexity of the cloud operations invisible to the customer
Virtualization
Increases resource utilization by leveraging servers, storage and network infrastructure
Metering
Provides for usage based accounting
Customer‐centric
The goal is streamlined, predictable, positive customer experience.

Your Cloud definition can have many forms:

Private Cloud
resides in a customer's data center
Managed Private Cloud
customer and a third-party operate and manage the cloud
Hosted Private Cloud
customer elects not to host their dedicated cloud
Shared Cloud Services
customer shares cloud with others
Public Cloud Services
large scale public cloud providers, such as Google, Amazon, IBM and others.