anyone with a smartphone and an inexpensive hardware
add-on to take credit card payments. The growth of cloud
services like these will continue at a steady pace, forcing
businesses to rethink how they engage with their
customers and operate business-critical services.
NIST DEFINITION
To define cloud, we need a common taxonomy, and for
that we can turn to the National Institute of Standards
and Technology, a U.S. government agency responsible
for standardizing weights, measurements, and
technology standards and practices. NIST Special
Publication (SP) 800-145 was written to solve the “what
is cloud” dilemma. While SP 800-145 is a rather short
document, it hits on the major aspects of cloud and is
therefore useful as a framework for understanding
application deployment options and prepping for the
200-901 DevNet Associate DEVASC exam. In SP 800-
145, NIST defines cloud through three primary lenses:
essential characteristics, service models, and deployment
models (see Figure 13-1).
Figure 13-1 NIST Cloud Computing Definition
Essential Characteristics