While cloud computing may seem vague and confusing, the National Institute of Standards and Technologies recently completed a working definition for the term after years of work and 15 drafts.
So what is Cloud Computing?
According to the official NIST definition, “cloud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction”, with the following 5 characteristics:
• On-demand self-service
• Broad network access
• Resource pooling
• Rapid elasticity or expansion
• Measured service
and 2 service models:
• Software-as-a-service: A remotely hosted, on-demand version of software. Examples include the popular customer relationship management offering from Salesforce.com.
• Platform-as-a-service: Provides enterprises with the hardware and software to run applications. Prominent examples include Microsoft Azure and Google Apps Engine.
We can insure technology companies that offer cloud computing services both hardware and software / system integration, including exposures coming out of Professional Liability / Errors and Omissions, including business personal property, servers, buildings and data centers. Many different coverage options and carriers for small (up to $500K in sales) and medium (half a million and more in annual gross sales).
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