Characteristics of cloud computing: 1. On-demand Self-Service: 1. Consumers can automatically provision computing resources as needed without human intervention from the service provider. This makes cloud computing highly versatile in meeting dynamic demand. 2. Broad Network Access: 1. Resources can be accessed over the network through standard mechanisms that promote use by heterogeneous thin or thick client platforms, think mobile phones, tablets, laptops, and workstations. 3. Resource Pooling: 1. The providers 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 demand. 4. Rapid Elasticity: 1. Capabilities can be elastically provisioned and released to scale rapidly outward and inward commensurate with demand. For consumers this means flexibility in their operations which can significantly reduce downtime and inefficiencies. 5. Measured Service: 1. Cloud systems automatically control and optimize resource use by leveraging a metering capability at some level of abstraction appropriate to the type of service such as storage, processing, bandwidth, and active user accounts. ==Multi-Tenancy==: Refers to a software architecture where a single instance of the software runs on a server and serves multiple tenants. Each tenants data is isolated and remains invisible to other tenants. This is similar to apartment living where multiple tenants live in the same building but in different/separate units. ==Virtualization==: Virtualization is the tech that allows multiple virtual systems to run on a single physical system which maximizes the utility of physical resources by dividing them into distinct and isolated environments, empowering users to run varied and complex processes efficiently. |Type|Description| |---|---| |On-Demand Self-Service|Automatic provisioning without interaction.| |Broad Network Access|Accessible via standard network protocols.| |Resource Pooling|Efficient resource use through multi-tenancy.| |Rapid Elasticity|Dynamic adjustment to service demand changes.| |Measured Service|Resource use is optimized and measured.|