Introductory Chapter: Cloud Computing

Cloud computing has recently emerged as one of the latest buzzwords in the computing industry. It is the latest evolution of computing, where IT resources are offered as services. Cloud computing provides on-demand, scalable, device-independent, and reliable services to its users. Cloud computing is all the rage, allowing for the delivery of computing and storage capacity to a diverse community of end-recipients. Clouds are distributed technology platforms that leverage sophisticated technology innovations to provide highly scalable and resilient environments that can be remotely utilized by organizations in a multitude of powerful ways. Cloud computing differs from peer-to-peer, client-server, grid computing, virtualization, and its levels. Over time, the technologies have evolved and led to the development of cloud computing in a phase-wise manner: