Cloud Computing Defintion from McKinsey & Company

McKinsey & Company defines cloud computing

Cloud Computing Definition: Clouds are hardware-based services offering compute, network and storage capacity where:

1) Hardware management is highly abstracted from the buyer

Characteristic: The underlying hardware can be anywhere geographically.

2) Buyers incur infrastructure costs as variable OPEX.

Characteristic: Enterprises incur no infrastructure capital costs, just operational costs and operational costs are incurred on a pay-per-use basis, with no contractual obligations.

3) Infrastructure capacity is highly elastic (up or down)

Characteristic: Capacity can be scaled up or down dynamically, and immediately, which differentiates from traditional hosting service providers.

See Also

• McKinsey: Data Centers Cheaper Than Cloud
  Is cloud computing more expensive that running your own data center?

McKinsey & Company defines cloud computing

Cloud Computing Definition: Clouds are hardware-based services offering compute, network and storage capacity where:

1) Hardware management is highly abstracted from the buyer

Characteristic: The underlying hardware can be anywhere geographically.

2) Buyers incur infrastructure costs as variable OPEX.

Characteristic: Enterprises incur no infrastructure capital costs, just operational costs and operational costs are incurred on a pay-per-use basis, with no contractual obligations.

3) Infrastructure capacity is highly elastic (up or down)

Characteristic: Capacity can be scaled up or down dynamically, and immediately, which differentiates from traditional hosting service providers.

See Also

• McKinsey: Data Centers Cheaper Than Cloud
  Is cloud computing more expensive that running your own data center?