This article is published by AllBusiness.com, a partner of TIME. What is "Cloud Computing"? Cloud computing is a model of computing that allows users to access, store, and manage data and applications over the internet instead of on a local computer or server.

(1) The processing power in a cloud datacenter in contrast to a user's computer. See cloud computing. THIS DEFINITION IS FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. All other reproduction requires permission.

The world's largest cloud computing platform, Amazon Web Services (AWS), has experienced a major outage that has impacted thousands of organizations, including banks, financial software platforms such as Xero,