Chapter 1. Introduction to Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is a term that has risen to the top of application development discussions in a very short period of time. Amazon, Google, and Microsoft (among many others), all offer cloud-computing services and are not shy about touting its benefits. If you believe the marketing hype, cloud computing ranks somewhere between revolutionary and the second coming of your favorite prophet. But what exactly is cloud computing, and how does it play into the daily lives of enterprise developers? Let's now try and find some answers.