Essential characteristics
Contents
Essential characteristics#
The five essential characteristics of cloud computing are:
C1: On-demand self-service
C2: Broad network access
C3: Resource pooling
C4: Rapid elasticity
C5: Measured service
As these essential characteristics help defining cloud computing, we can compare and contrast between cloud computing and traditional on-site physical servers by using an analogy that compares line of credits versus cash.
The first important point to make based on this analogy is that while cash and line of credits are two different mediums, they both represent the same thing: buy power. In this sense, regardless of their differences, cloud computing and on-site physical servers also represent the same thing: computing power.