A community cloud is a multi-tenant cloud service model that is shared among several organizations from a specific group with common computing concerns (e.g., mission, security requirements and compliance considerations). These organizations or communities have similar cloud requirements and their ultimate goal is to work together to achieve their business objectives. Community Cloud has its own challenges like allocation of costs, responsibilities, governance and security
The costs are spread over fewer users than a public cloud (but more than a private cloud), so only some of the cost savings potential of cloud computing are realized. The cloud may be managed by the organisations or by a third party and can be either on-premise or off-premise.
In general, public cloud services are likely to be more cost efficient and scalable than private clouds, but less secure.
The goal of community clouds is to have participating organizations realize the benefits of a public cloud with the added level of privacy, security, and policy compliance usually associated with a private cloud.
Government, healthcare, telco community, and some regulated private industries are leveraging the added security features within a community cloud environment. Instead of just provisioning space in a public cloud, organizations can test and work on a cloud platform which is secure, “dedicated,” and even compliant with certain regulations.