Muhammad Arsal Farooq CUI Lahore FA-21/BSE-B/047

Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage
(cloud storage) and computing power, without direct active management by the user. Large clouds often
have functions distributed over multiple locations, each location being a data center. Cloud computing
relies on sharing of resources to achieve coherence[clarification needed] and economies of scale,
typically using a "pay-as-you-go" model which can help in reducing capital expenses but may also lead to
unexpected operating expenses for unaware users.

C l ou d co m p ut i ng m et a p ho r : th e g r o up o f ne tw or k e d
el em en ts p r ov id in g s er v ic es ne ed no t be in d i vi d u a l l y
a d d r es s ed or m a n a g ed b y us er s ; i ns te a d , t he en ti r e
p r ov id er -m a n a g ed s ui te of ha r d w a r e a nd s o ft w a r e ca n be
t ho ug ht of a s a n a m o r p ho us c l o ud .

The National Institute of Standards and Technology's definition of cloud computing identifies "five
essential characteristics":

 On-demand self-service; a consumer can unilaterally provision computing capabilities, such as

server time and network storage, as needed automatically without requiring human interaction
with each service provider.
 Broad network access; capabilities are available over the network and accessed through
standard mechanisms that promote use by heterogeneous thin or thick client platforms (e.g.,
mobile phones, tablets, laptops, and workstations).
 Resource pooling; the provider's computing resources are pooled to serve multiple consumers
using a multi-tenant model, with different physical and virtual resources dynamically assigned
and reassigned according to consumer demand. 
 Rapid elasticity; capabilities can be elastically provisioned and released, in some cases
automatically, to scale rapidly outward and inward commensurate with demand. To the
consumer, the capabilities available for provisioning often appear unlimited and can be
appropriated in any quantity at any time.
 Measured service; cloud systems automatically control and optimize resource use by leveraging
a metering capability at some level of abstraction appropriate to the type of service (e.g.,
storage, processing, bandwidth, and active user accounts). Resource usage can be monitored,
controlled, and reported, providing transparency for both the provider and consumer of the
utilized service.

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Muhammad Arsal Farooq CUI Lahore FA-21/BSE-B/047

Cloud storage is a model of computer data storage in which the digital data is stored in logical pools,
said to be on "the cloud". The physical storage spans multiple servers (sometimes in multiple locations),
and the physical environment is typically owned and managed by a hosting company. These cloud
storage providers are responsible for keeping the data available and accessible, and the physical
environment secured, protected, and running. People and organizations buy or lease storage capacity
from the providers to store user, organization, or application data.

Cloud storage services may be accessed through an allocated cloud computing service, a web service
application programming interface (API) or by applications that utilize the API, such as cloud desktop
storage, a cloud storage gateway or Web-based content management systems.

A hi g h l ev el a r ch it ec tu r e of cl ou d s t or a g e .

Cloud storage is:

 Made up of many distributed resources, but still acts as one, either in a federated or a
cooperative storage cloud architecture.
 Highly fault tolerant through redundancy and distribution of data.
 Highly durable through the creation of versioned copies.
 Typically eventually consistent with regard to data replicas.

Cloud storage is based on highly virtualized infrastructure and is like broader cloud computing in terms
of interfaces, near-instant elasticity and scalability, multi-tenancy, and metered resources. Cloud storage
services can be utilized from an off-premises service (Amazon S3) or deployed on-premises (ViON
Capacity Services).

There are three types of cloud storage: a hosted object storage service, file storage, and block storage.
Each of these cloud storage types offers its own unique advantages.