Foundations

Abstract

Cloud Computing is based on the idea that resources, such as software applications, Central Processing Unit (CPU) capacity, and data storage, are no longer processed, kept, and stored at the users’ side. Instead, they are centrally and dynamically provided by the provider over networks, e. g., the Internet (Buxmann et al., 2011b, p. 21). The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) defines Cloud Computing as “a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, ondemand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e. g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction” (Mell and Grance, 2011, p. 2).