es additionally can use the cloud to dramatically shrink the size of their data centers. Start-ups and small businesses often eliminate them altogether and rely solely on cloud services. Cloud computing is based on a distributed architecture structure where providers' data centers are duplicated in multiple geographic locations. See Figure 1- 11 for distributed cloud data centers. Cloud providers generally build duplicate data centers that are connected to each other by high capacity fiber optic cabling. For example, they may have data centers on the west coast, on the east coast, and a few in the central or western states. The goal of connecting the data centers with fiber- optic cabling is that if one data center fails, a duplicate data center can take over operations. www.TechnicalPDF.com Cloud Provider's Data Centers Seattle data center Chicago data center New York City data center Servers Servers- Switch Switch Switch Fiber-Optical Cabling Three distributed cloud data centers connected together with fiber-optic cabling. Switches at each data center transmit back up data to the others SO data is not lost in the event of a failure Figure 1-11 Cloud computing distributed data centers connected by fiber-optic cabling. www.TechnicalPDF.com Organizations now have choices about where applications are located. They can place applications at: A hosting center where companies often place their own computers and manage them remotely. The hosting company is responsible for: . Security . Broadband links to the hosting site Sustainability in the event of power outages and natural disasters. Purchasing rights to software with installation at their own data centers On the cloud where a provider manages the hardware and the application software When cloud computing was first introduced, it was wildly popular with small start-ups that wanted to avoid investing in computer hardware because of growth uncertainties. However, larger businesses were more cautious about moving applications to the cloud because of concerns about pri