Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system, storage, and networking resources and services in a way that does not necessarily always require the active management by a person. Typically a cloud will provide the ability to create one or more virtual machines located within a virtual network with appropriate amounts of disk space. Each virtual machine may or may not be mapped to an externally accessible Internet address. (If not, then such machines must be accessed through the cloud management interface.)
NOTE: Access to our clusters' clouds is via OpenStack web interfaces, however, before one can log in and use such, one must request access. See: https://docs.alliancecan.ca/wiki/Cloud for more details.
