Abstract—Cloud Computing (CC) has become one of the most talked about emerging technologies that provides powerful computing and large storage environments through the use of the Internet. Cloud computing provides different dynamically scalable computing resources as a service. It brings economic benefits to individuals and businesses that adopt the technology. In theory adoption of cloud computing reduces capital and operational expenditure on information technology. For this to be a reality there is need to solve some challenges and at the same time addressing concerns that consumers have about cloud computing. This paper looks at Cloud Computing in general then highlights the challenges of Cloud Computing and finally suggests solutions to some of the challenges. Keywords—Cloud Computing, SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, Internet. I.INTRODUCTION LOUD COMPUTING (CC) is the buzz word for those who want to turn their desktops or mobile devices into virtually unimaginable powerful computing and large storage environments through the use of Internet. It provides the computing infrastructure (e.g. servers, storage), platforms (e.g. operating systems) and software (e.g. application programs) [1]. End users access desired resources through a browser and get data from cloud computing service providers without investing in maintaining their own data centres [2]. Cloud computing is driven by economic of scale. One of the main benefits is that end users are able to access computing resources on-demand for a fee through the Internet anywhere anytime. There are so many claims of what cloud computing can do. Cloud computing service providers promise that multiple end users are able to share information and collaborate on projects and/or documents in cloud [3]. The fee to pay for use of CC resources is affordable. End users only get CC resources scaled to their needs. The security of end user data is guaranteed. The CC infrastructure is very robust that CC resources will always be there all the time [4]. In this paper discussions of the definition of Cloud Computing and its characteristics is done in Section II, Cloud Computing Service Models is dealt with in Section III, Cloud Computing Deployment Models in Section IV, Challenges facing Cloud Computing in Section V, Suggested Solutions in K. Zuva is with the Department of Computer Science, University of Botswana, Gaborone, Botswana (e-mail: mapokak@mopipi.ub.bw). T. Zuva is with the Department of Computer Systems Engineering, Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, South Africa (e-mail: zuvat@tutu.ac.za). K.O.M. Mapoka is with the Department of Agricultural Engineering and Land Planning, Botswana College of Agriculture, Gaborone, Botswana (e- mail: kmapoka@bca.bw). Section VI and then Conclusion is given. II. CLOUD COMPUTING In this section we discuss the definitions in [5], [6] and then the characteristics of cloud computing. In [6], Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources that is networks, servers, storage, applications, services, etc that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimum management effort or service provider interaction. In [5], [7] it is a large-scale distributed computing paradigm that is driven by economic of scale, in which a pool of abstracted, virtualized, dynamically-scalable, managed computing power, storage, platforms and services are delivered on-demand to customers over the Internet. From these two definitions we can derive the characteristics of cloud computing. These are shown in Fig. 1. These characteristics apply to all clouds. Cloud computing service provider put together computing resources that are shared by billed multiple clients (Resource Pooling). The clients must be able to access the cloud through the Internet whenever they need a cloud service (Self Service, Internet Access). The use of cloud should be measured in order to be billed (Measured Usage). The resources released to a client must be proportional to client’s needs at any given moment (Dynamically Scalable). Fig. 1 Fundamental Characteristics of Cloud Computing K. Zuva, T. Zuva, and K. O. M. Mapoka Open Cloud Computing with Fault Tolerance C World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology International Journal of Computer and Information Engineering Vol:7, No:6, 2013 711 International Scholarly and Scientific Research & Innovation 7(6) 2013 scholar.waset.org/1307-6892/29 International Science Index, Computer and Information Engineering Vol:7, No:6, 2013 waset.org/Publication/29