UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook, 5th Edition

9	Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is the practice of leasing computer resources from a pool of shared capacity. Users of cloud services provision resources on demand and pay a metered rate for whatever they consume. Businesses that embrace the cloud enjoy faster time to market, greater flexibility, and lower capital and operating expenses than businesses that run traditional data centers.

The cloud is the realization of “utility computing,” first conceived by the late computer scientist John McCarthy, who described the idea in a talk at MIT in 1961. Many technological advances since McCarthy’s prescient remarks have helped to ...