Which of the following is typically NOT a characteristic of cloud computing?

High maintenance costs are typically not a characteristic of cloud computing because one of the primary benefits of cloud services is that they reduce the burden of infrastructure management and maintenance for users. In a cloud computing environment, resources such as computing power and storage are managed by the cloud service provider, leading to lower overall maintenance costs for customers.

Cloud services offer scalability and flexibility, allowing organizations to pay only for the resources they use, which contrasts sharply with the concept of high maintenance costs. Instead, characteristics like on-demand self-service, resource pooling, and pooled resources illustrate the efficiency, agility, and economy that cloud computing provides. Users can easily provision resources as needed without ongoing maintenance worries, making the cloud a more cost-effective solution compared to traditional IT models that often involve substantial maintenance expenses.