Intelligent Machines

How It Works: Cloud Computing

Jun 23, 2009

/files/28405/MIT_HowItWorks.swf

Companies using traditional hosting services must choose carefully when they decide how many servers to rent: too few and they could lose customers, too many and they could pay significantly for power that they don’t need. Cloud hosting allows companies more flexibility based on the resources that they actually need at a given moment. The interactive diagram above illustrates how the two models work under pressure.

Credit: Alastair Halliday