What is cloud computing?
Cloud computing is the on-demand delivery of IT resources—such as compute, storage, networking, databases, analytics, and AI—over the internet, billed on a pay-as-you-go basis.
Instead of owning physical servers or data centers, you rent resources from a cloud provider (AWS, Azure, GCP). This lets you scale up or down as needed, pay only for what you use, and offload infrastructure management.
🔑 Core Ideas
1. On-demand access
You can launch servers, databases, or storage in minutes, without buying hardware.
2. Pay-as-you-go
You only pay for consumed resources (GB of storage, CPU-hours, requests, data transfers, etc.).
3. Elasticity & scalability
Resources scale automatically or manually—great for variable workloads.
4. Global availability
Cloud providers operate data centers around the world, enabling low latency and disaster recovery.
5. Managed services
Everything from Kubernetes clusters to serverless functions to AI models is offered as a fully-managed service.
🏗 Cloud Deployment Models
Public Cloud
Shared infrastructure operated by the provider (AWS, Azure, GCP).
Private Cloud
Dedicated infrastructure for one organization (on-prem or hosted).
Hybrid Cloud
Mix of public + private, with integration between them.
Multi-cloud
Using multiple cloud vendors simultaneously.
Cloud Computing Service models: IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, CaaS
☁️ Cloud Service Models
IaaS – Infrastructure as a Service
Raw compute, storage, networking. Examples: EC2, Azure VMs, GCP Compute Engine.
PaaS – Platform as a Service
Managed platforms for building apps without handling infrastructure. Examples: AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Google App Engine.
SaaS – Software as a Service
Full applications delivered through the internet. Examples: Gmail, Salesforce, Office 365.
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