Which one of the following is related to the services provided by Cloud?

Cloud computing is often compared with traditional in-house IT delivery across several independent dimensions - sourcing (who builds and runs the service), ownership (who holds title to the underlying assets), and reliability (how dependable the service is), among others. Sourcing specifically distinguishes an INSOURCED model, where an organization's own staff builds and operates the IT capability, from an OUTSOURCED model, where an external provider delivers and manages it on the organization's behalf.

Applying this to Cloud: the standard public-cloud model this question is testing is an outsourced sourcing arrangement - a third-party provider builds, hosts, and operates the service while the organization simply consumes it (a private cloud can still be run in-house/insourced, but the sourcing distinction - insourced vs outsourced - is the general dimension being tested here). That is exactly the dimension this question asks about - WHO builds and operates the service - so the option that names this delivery-model dimension is the answer.

• Ownership concerns who holds legal title to the hardware and software assets, not who operates the service day to day.

• Reliability is a performance/quality measure - how consistently available the service stays - not a description of who delivers it.

• PaaS names one specific type of cloud offering (a platform layer for building and running applications), not the general dimension of who provides a service.

None of these three describe the 'who provides the service' dimension - only Sourcing does. So the correct option is Sourcing.