Cloud Computing: Websites

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The IEEE Technical Committee on Cloud Computing (TCCLD) has transitioned from an initiative under IEEE Future Directions to be operational under the Computer Society (CS), keeping the IEEE participating societies involved. The community provides a forum for members to broaden professional contacts, facilitates information exchange, and stimulates the growth of research, education and industry in cloud computing.

From the NIST (National Institute of Standards & Technology) of the U.S. Department of Commerce: "Cloud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. This cloud model is composed of five essential characteristics, three service models, and four deployment models."