A server-side software platform that provides the complete infrastructure for organizations that want to offer public or private cloud computing services to customers. A cloud management system includes the operating system, which is typically a version of Linux, the virtual machine monitor (VMM) along with software for clustering, load balancing, establishing and migrating virtual machines (VMs), backing up virtual machines and related functions. A cloud operating system also provides the necessary administrative interfaces that let users set up and manage their systems. See
cloud computing,
virtual machine and
virtual machine monitor.