I thought I would start things off with a YouTube video taken back in the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco in 2008. Its a collection of short interviews asking various conference attendees “What is Cloud Computing?”
Next is a definition from Wikipedia. I know its Wikipedia, but many articles are pointing to this definition at the moment (02/19/2009):
Cloud computing refers to the use of Internet-based (i.e. Cloud) computer technology for a variety of services,Whereby dynamically scalable and often virtualised resources are provided as a service over the Internet. Users need not have knowledge of, expertise in, or control over the technology infrastructure “in the cloud” that supports them.
The concept incorporates software as a service (SaaS), Web 2.0 and other recent, well-known technology trends, in which the common theme is reliance on the Internet for satisfying the computing needs of the users. An often-quoted example is Google Apps, which provides common business applications online that are accessed from a web browser, while the software and data are stored on Google servers.
The cloud is a metaphor for the Internet, based on how it is depicted in computer network diagrams, and is an abstraction for the complex infrastructure it conceals.
(Cloud computing. (2009, February 19). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 18:20, February 19, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cloud_computing&oldid=271830227)
You can also find a rough breakdown of the various types of “clouds” that are available form InfoWorld’s “What Cloud Computing Really Means.“
