Pilvemudel

Pilvemudel is the Estonian term for the cloud model, a framework used to describe how cloud computing resources, services, and delivery methods are organized and consumed over the Internet. The model helps organizations understand what is provided, how it is delivered, and who pays, supporting planning, procurement, and comparison of options.

The main service models are Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). IaaS offers virtualized computing resources such as servers and storage. PaaS provides a managed platform for developing, testing, and deploying applications. SaaS delivers software applications accessed over the internet, typically through a web interface.

Deployment models describe how the cloud is operated and shared. Public cloud runs on third-party infrastructure available to many users; private cloud is dedicated to a single organization; hybrid cloud combines multiple environments; community cloud serves a defined group with shared concerns.

Key characteristics of pilvemudel include on-demand self-service, broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity, and measured service with pay-as-you-go pricing. These properties enable scalability and flexibility but require attention to security, data governance, and service-level expectations.

Adoption decisions are guided by factors such as cost efficiency, agility, compliance, data residency, and vendor lock-in. The pilvemudel concept is widely used in IT strategy to compare clouds, design architectures, and communicate cloud requirements.