Cloud Computing — Technology Wiki

Overview

Direct Answer

Cloud computing is the on-demand delivery of computing resources—including servers, storage, databases, networking, and applications—over the internet, with customers paying only for what they use. This model eliminates the need for organisations to purchase and maintain physical infrastructure on premises.

How It Works

Service providers operate large-scale data centres that host virtualised computing resources accessible via APIs and web interfaces. Users provision resources dynamically through self-service portals, with underlying infrastructure automatically scaled to meet demand. Billing systems track usage in real time and charge customers according to consumption patterns.

Why It Matters

Organisations reduce capital expenditure on hardware, shift costs to operational budgets, and gain flexibility to scale resources up or down rapidly. This enables faster deployment of applications, reduces time-to-market, and allows teams to focus on business logic rather than infrastructure management.

Common Applications

Web application hosting, data analytics and big data processing, disaster recovery and business continuity, machine learning model training, and software-as-a-service platforms. Industries including finance, healthcare, retail, and media utilise cloud services for production workloads and development environments.

Key Considerations

Organisations must carefully assess vendor lock-in risks, data residency and compliance requirements, and network latency implications. Security responsibility is shared between provider and customer, requiring clear understanding of each party's obligations.

Cited Across coldai.org3 pages mention Cloud Computing

Industry pages, services, technologies, capabilities, case studies and insights on coldai.org that reference Cloud Computing — providing applied context for how the concept is used in client engagements.

Case Study

The Rise of Agentic AI in Enterprise Operations

How autonomous AI agents are transforming enterprise workflows — from customer service to supply chain optimization — and what organizations need to prepare for the agentic era.

Insight

How Hospital Systems Are Replacing EHR Vendors With Federated AI Layers

The fastest-growing IT budget line in healthcare isn't software licenses—it's the middleware that lets clinical AI agents read, write, and route decisions across fragmented data es

Insight

Inside: Drug Developers Are Abandoning Centralized Data Lakes for Federated Ledgers

Pharmaceutical companies now lose less IP to distributed compute than to cloud breaches, reversing two decades of centralization economics.

Referenced By15 terms mention Cloud Computing

Other entries in the wiki whose definition references Cloud Computing — useful for understanding how this concept connects across Cloud Computing and adjacent domains.

Cloud Cost Optimisation·Cloud Computing Cloud Orchestration·Cloud Computing Cloud-Native·Cloud Computing Cloud-Native Development·Cloud Computing Disaster Recovery as a Service·Cloud Computing Function as a Service·Cloud Computing Green Cloud Computing·Cloud Computing Industry 4.0·IoT & Edge Computing Infrastructure as a Service·Cloud Computing Platform as a Service·Cloud Computing Private Cloud·Cloud Computing Public Cloud·Cloud Computing Software as a Service·Cloud Computing Spot Instance·Cloud Computing Spot Instances·Cloud Computing

Related in Service Models

Infrastructure as a Service

Cloud computing model providing virtualised computing resources like servers, storage, and networking over the internet.

Platform as a Service

Cloud computing model that provides a platform for developers to build, deploy, and manage applications without managing infrastructure.

Software as a Service

Cloud computing model that delivers software applications over the internet on a subscription basis.

Function as a Service

A serverless cloud computing model where individual functions are executed in response to events.

Serverless Computing

A cloud execution model where the provider dynamically allocates resources, charging only for actual compute time used.

Cloud-Native

An approach to building applications that fully exploit cloud computing advantages like elasticity, resilience, and automation.

Private Cloud

Cloud computing resources used exclusively by a single organisation, either on-premises or hosted by a third party.

Public Cloud

Cloud computing resources shared among multiple organisations and available to the general public over the internet.

Managed Service

A cloud service where the provider handles infrastructure management, maintenance, updates, and monitoring.

Cloud Cost Optimisation

Strategies and practices for minimising cloud computing expenses while maintaining performance and functionality.

Spot Instance

A cloud computing option that uses spare capacity at significantly reduced prices with the possibility of interruption.

Cloud Orchestration

The automated arrangement, coordination, and management of complex cloud computing systems and services.

More in Cloud Computing

gRPC

Architecture Patterns

A high-performance remote procedure call framework developed by Google using Protocol Buffers for serialisation.

Sovereign Cloud

Strategy & Economics

Cloud infrastructure operated within national boundaries under local jurisdiction, ensuring data sovereignty, regulatory compliance, and protection from foreign government access.

Virtual Machine

Infrastructure

A software emulation of a physical computer that runs an operating system and applications independently.

Multi-Cloud Strategy

Strategy & Economics

An approach that distributes workloads across multiple cloud providers to avoid vendor lock-in, optimise costs, meet regulatory requirements, and improve resilience.

AI Infrastructure

Service Models

The specialised hardware, software, and networking stack required to train and serve AI models at scale, including GPU clusters, high-bandwidth interconnects, and model serving frameworks.

API

Architecture Patterns

Application Programming Interface — a set of protocols and tools for building and integrating software applications.

Green Cloud Computing

Service Models

Cloud computing practices that minimise environmental impact through renewable energy usage, efficient cooling, workload consolidation, and carbon-aware scheduling of compute tasks.

Internal Developer Portal

Deployment & Operations

A centralised web interface that provides developers with self-service access to infrastructure, services, documentation, and templates within their organisation.