thinQmaster Virtual testing partner Adaptive practice exams that find your weak spots and drill them. Every answer explained. From $69
Enroll

thinQmaster

Find your exam

Five questions free, before you decide.

Step 1 · choose a vendor

In one of our camps? Your practice exams come with the tuition — they are on your study page already.

Cloud Computing · Foundational

NIST Definition of Cloud Computing (NIST SP 800-145)

The NIST special publication that defines cloud computing via 5 essential characteristics, 3 service models and 4 deployment models.

Definition

NIST Special Publication 800-145 (2011) is the most widely cited formal definition of cloud computing. Its five essential characteristics are on-demand self-service, broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity and measured service; its service models are IaaS, PaaS and SaaS; its deployment models are private, community, public and hybrid cloud.

Example

An auditor uses SP 800-145 to decide whether an internal virtualization farm qualifies as a private cloud by checking for self-service and metering.

Exam tip

If a question asks which is NOT an essential characteristic, distractors like 'multitenancy' or 'high availability' are not among the five NIST characteristics.

Related terms