Cloud computing

SmallBusiness.com: The free small business resource

Cloud computing is Internet-based computing where software and information are used by computers and other devices on-demand, like a traditional utility.

The term cloud is used as a metaphor for the Internet, based on the cloud drawing used in the past to represent the Internet in computer network diagrams as an abstraction of the underlying infrastructure it represents.

Typical cloud computing providers deliver common business applications online which are accessed from a web browser, while the software and data are stored on servers.

See also

• Software as a service

External links

This entry includes content from the following Wikipedia article: Cloud computing

This term or phrase is currently an entry in The SmallBusiness.com Open Glossary. Please help expand this entry into a more detailed description.