Cloud computing definition

Definition :

Cloud computing is internet based computing, where software, services, information and storage are accessed over the Internet (or "cloud").

Cloud computing can be split into three main services:

• Infrastructure as a service (IaaS): internet based delivery of computer infrastructure on demand, such as servers, storage and connections. This allows organisations to migrate their software and processing from physical hardware in IT server rooms to rapidly scalable capacity in large datacentres
• Platform as a service (PaaS): development platforms which allow organisations to build web-based applications, without the concerns of managing the underlying infrastructure and servers that they sit on
• Software as a service (SaaS): software accessed over the web as an on demand service rather than requiring software installation on a desktop or on-premise server, e.g. our QAS Pro On Demand online address verification product. SaaS is the level of cloud computing that Experian QAS provides through the range of products which are hosted on our QAS On Demand platform

Related information


• Read more about Software as a service (SaaS)
• See which Experian QAS products can be accessed on demand