What type of computing technology refers to services and applications that…

Cloud computing is a model for delivering computing services — servers, storage, databases, networking, software — over the internet on demand. It relies on virtualization to pool physical hardware into shared, scalable resources that many users access remotely via standard internet protocols, paying only for what they use.

The question describes a technology where services and applications run on a distributed network through virtualized resources — this is exactly the defining characteristic of cloud computing: resources are virtualized (not tied to one physical machine) and delivered as a service over a network using internet protocols, matching the option Cloud Computing.

Comparing with the other options:

• Distributed Computing: splits a single computational task across multiple independent physical machines to combine their processing power; it does not itself define the internet-delivered, virtualized service model described here.

• Soft Computing: a family of AI techniques (fuzzy logic, neural networks, genetic algorithms) for handling approximate or imprecise reasoning — unrelated to networked service delivery.

• Parallel Computing: executes multiple computations simultaneously, often within a single tightly coupled system, to speed up processing — this describes an execution style, not a model for delivering virtualized services over a network.

Therefore, Cloud Computing is the technology being described.