Cloud Computing has recently emerged as a compelling paradigm for managing and delivering services over the internet. It is rapidly changing the landscape of information technology, and ultimately turning the long-held promise of utility computing into a reality. With such speedy progressing and emerging, it becomes crucial to understand all aspects about this technology. This chapter provides a comprehensive overview on the Cloud's anatomy, definition, characteristic, affects, architecture,

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... core technology. It clearly classifies the Cloud's deployment and service models, providing a full description of the Cloud services vendors. The chapter also addresses the customer-related aspects such as the Service Level Agreement, service cost, and security issues. Finally, it covers detailed comparisons between the Cloud Computing paradigm and other existing ones in addition to its significant challenges. By that, the chapter provides a complete overview on the Cloud Computing and paves the way for further research in this area.