Cloud infrastructure is provided to the general public or large business organizations. The infrastructure is owned by cloud providers.

Anyone can obtain cloud services.

Examples:

• Amazon Web Services
• Microsoft Azure
• Google Cloud Platform

This type of cloud infrastructure is operated exclusively for one organization.

It may be managed by the organization or a third party and may be located on or off the organization’s premises.

Examples:

• Rackspace
• VMware vCloud
• Azure Stack
• IBM Cloud Private

This type of cloud infrastructure combines two or more deployment models, such as private, community, or public cloud, and is operated as a single entity. The environments are connected by standardized or proprietary technology to enable data and application portability. Hybrid cloud commonly describes a non-cloud data center connected directly to a cloud provider.

From a technical perspective, a community cloud is a shared cloud platform accessible only to specific customers. The cloud infrastructure is shared by specific organizations using multitenancy. It supports a community that shares mission, security requirements, policy, or compliance concerns. It may be managed by an organization or a third party and may be located on or off the organization’s premises. An example is a government cloud (GovCloud).