A cloud platform is a solution offered by a service provider that offers to host and deploy software applications off-premise. This frees up end user organisations from the cost and complexity of investing in and managing their own software and server capability.

A cloud platform offers users access to applications on demand. It also enables organisations to store data remotely – taking advantage of the economies of scale of large data centres to reduce costs. This ability to tap into larger resources also means that cloud platforms offer businesses a flexible and scalable solution.