Cloud-based tools and applications

A shared pool of computing resources that is often delivered as infrastructure tools and web applications — these include:

• servers
• data storage
• service management
• networking
• platforms
• analytics and intelligence
• mobile applications.

Cloud services are information systems

Public cloud services are like other information technology systems — they are sets of computing components that work together to store, process and send information.

Information system — National Institute of Standards and Technology

Specific types of cloud services

Cloud services can be based in private or public models, or variations of these, such as community and hybrid.

Private cloud services

Your organisation sets up, owns and maintains its computing resources, sharing its infrastructure and applications through its private network.

Public cloud services

Your organisation accesses, through the internet, the computing resources that a third-party provider sets up, owns and maintains.

Benefits of using public cloud services

Other types of cloud services

Private, community, hybrid and multi-cloud models offer different solutions and create varied complexities in managing them.

Despite public cloud’s benefits, government organisations can use the other types of cloud. It might make sense to use them for certain business needs.

More information — public and other types of cloud

In its glossary, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has definitions of terms used in cloud computing.

Glossary — NIST

The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) has information about best practices for security in each type of cloud model.

Security guidance for critical areas of focus in cloud computing — CSA

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has guidance about cloud computing’s:

• overview and vocabulary — ISO/IEC 17788:2014
• reference architecture — ISO/IEC 17789:2014.

Publicly available standards — ISO