BookRix

Cloud Computing, the long-held dream of computing as a utility,
has the potential to transform a large part of the IT industry,
making software even more attractive as a service and shaping
the way IT hardware is designed and purchased. Developers
with innovative ideas for new Internet services no longer require
the large capital outlays in hardware to deploy their service
or the human expense to operate it. They need not be concerned
about over-provisioning for a service whose popularity
does not meet their predictions, thus wasting costly resources,
or under-provisioning for one that becomes wildly popular, thus
missing potential customers and revenue. Moreover, companies
with large batch-oriented tasks can get results as quickly as their
programs can scale, since using 1000 servers for one hour costs
no more than using one server for 1000 hours. This elasticity of
resources, without paying a premium for large scale, is unprecedented.