ABSTRACT
Cloud computing is a "paradigm for enabling network access to a scalable and elastic pool of shareable physical or virtual resources with self-service provisioning and administration on-demand". This chapter provides a high-level architecture framework for cloud-based services to enable users (called cloud service users) to access applications executing on shared, virtualized infrastructure via access and wide area networking services. It descries two aspects of the canonical cloud architectural framework: shared cloud infrastructure and automated life cycle management. The chapter offers one mapping of standard, primary roles onto the canonical cloud architectural framework. Cloud service delivery can usefully be viewed as the input-output model. Fundamentally, cloud service users consume application services from various cloud service customer (CSC) organizations, and those CSC organizations rely primarily on both cloud service provider (CSP) organizations and software suppliers. ISO/IEC stipulates that cloud computing has six key characteristics: broad network access, measured service, multitenancy, on-demand self-service, rapid elasticity and scalability and resource pooling.
