Level: Introductory

Prabhakar Chaganti (prabhakar@ylastic.com), CTO, Ylastic, LLC

22 Jul 2008

This series introduces you to cloud computing using Amazon Web Services and details the compelling alternative it provides for architecting and building scalable and reliable applications. In this first article, explore the features of this virtual infrastructure and the services that you can use to build today’s Web-scale systems.

What is cloud computing?

Cloud computing can be loosely defined as the use of scalable computing resources that are provided as a service from outside your environment on a pay per use basis. You pay for only what you use and you use only what you need. You can access any of the resources that live in the cloud at any time and from anywhere across the Internet. But you do not have to worry about how the cloud is maintained behind the scenes. The cloud is responsible for being highly available and responsive to the needs of your application. Cloud computing has also been termed as utility computing or grid computing in the past.

......

Please access the below link to view the full content.

Original link: http://www.ibm.com/developerwork...