Characteristics

There are four key characteristics of cloud computing. They are shown in the following diagram:
ON DEMAND SELF-SERVICE
Cloud Computing allows the users to use web services and resources on demand. One can logon to a website at any time and use them.

BROAD NETWORK ACCESS
Since Cloud Computing is completely web based, it can be accessed from anywhere and at any time.

RESOURCE POOLING
Cloud Computing allows multiple tenants to share a pool of resources. One can share single physical instance of hardware, database and basic infrastructure.

RAPID ELASTICITY
It is very easy to scale up or down the resources at any time.
Resources used by the customers or currently assigned to customers are automatically monitored and resources. It make it possible

MEASURED SERVICE
Service Models & Deployment Models are described in above section.