What is Cloud Computing? — UK Software Development Guide
Direct Answer
Cloud computing is the delivery of computing services — servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics, and intelligence — over the internet to offer faster innovation, flexible resources, and economies of scale. The major cloud service models are: IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a Service), and SaaS (Software as a Service).
Cloud-computing in the UK
UK cloud computing is dominated by AWS and Microsoft Azure, both of which have UK data centres (eu-west-2 London and UK South/West respectively) satisfying UK GDPR data residency requirements. The UK government's G-Cloud framework enables public sector bodies to procure cloud services from approved suppliers. UK businesses considering cloud migration should: verify data residency for UK GDPR, understand the shared responsibility model (you are responsible for your data's security even in the cloud), and ensure cloud security groups/firewalls meet Cyber Essentials requirements.
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