An Inconvenient Truth of the NIST Definition of Cloud Computing
Amid the many benefits of having the NIST SP 800-145 as a tool to facilitate the understanding of cloud computing, the classification and some definitions of the four deployment models are redundant and inconsistent. Particularly, the definition of "community cloud" is a redundancy of that of a private cloud, the deployment models are defined with two sets of criteria, and "hybrid cloud" is a confusing, ambiguous, and extraneous term.
SP 800-145 is the de facto standard in the IT industry of describing what cloud computing is with five essential characteristics, three delivery methods, and four deployment models. The five essential characteristics will specify the qualifications and expected behaviors of an object qualified with the term cloud. The three delivery methods signify the essence of cloud computing centered on the concept of a "service." Both the characteristics and the delivery methods in SP 800-145 form a solid foundation and present a conceptual model envisioning what cloud computing is and about. SP 800-145 gets inconvenient where the four deployment models including public, community, private, and hybrid clouds are defined, as shown below…