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CHAPTER
Popular Cloud Services
20
C
omputing as a utility service has been a long desired dream in the field of computing.
Although the basic idea about cloud computing was introduced many years back, it could
not become a reality due to several technological constraints. Later on, technologists succeeded
in overcome these technical constraints one after another, and with
time computing technology
started advancing at a steady pace. The economical and other advantages of cloud computing
were visible to everyone including business houses and once all of the required technologies
were
in place, the computing vendors jumped into the development of cloud services.
In last ten years, many companies have been successful in offering cloud services in
different types, sizes and shapes. List of such companies include the
major technology vendors
like Microsoft, Amazon and Google whose cloud services have gained a major share in the
market. These providers along with many other large and middle
size vendors and research
institutes have developed and offered a number of service plans suitable for both individual
consumers and businesses.
Cloud computing is the future of computing in forthcoming years. Cloud services are rapidly
gaining more and more appreciation globally and the expansion of cloud service industry is
evident. It provides swift availability of enterprise-quality resource
and high-performance
computing services that can significantly improve business productivity. This chapter focuses
on some very popular public cloud services presented by computing majors who also have
contributed immensely
in the development of IaaS, PaaS and SaaS.
