What is Cloud Computing?
Cloud computing delivers on‑demand IT services over the Internet—think virtual servers, storage, databases, and more—without the need for on‑premise infrastructure. The model enables scalable, elastic, and pay‑as‑you‑go resources, allowing organizations to focus on their core mission rather than hardware maintenance.
Key Benefits
- Elasticity & Scalability – Scale resources up or down in minutes.
- Cost Efficiency – Pay only for what you use.
- Global Reach – Deploy services from data centers worldwide.
- Reliability & Redundancy – Built‑in failover and disaster recovery.
- Speed to Market – Deploy applications faster.
- Innovation & Services – Access to AI, ML, analytics, and IoT tools.
- Focus on Core Business – Offload infrastructure maintenance.
Deployment Models
- Public Cloud – Resources owned by a provider, shared among customers.
- Private Cloud – Dedicated infrastructure for a single organization.
- Hybrid Cloud – Combination of public and private environments.
- Community Cloud – Shared by several organizations with common concerns.
Service Models
- IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) – Virtual machines, storage, networking.
- PaaS (Platform as a Service) – Managed runtime, middleware, databases.
- SaaS (Software as a Service) – End‑user applications delivered over the web.
Major Cloud Providers
- AWS – Leader in services & market share.
- Microsoft Azure – Strong enterprise integration.
- Google Cloud Platform – AI/ML and data analytics focus.
- IBM Cloud – Hybrid & AI expertise.
- Oracle Cloud – Database & enterprise workloads.
Typical Architecture Stack
- Compute Layer – EC2, Virtual Machines, Serverless functions.
- Storage Layer – S3, Blob, Cloud Storage.
- Networking Layer – VPC, CDN, Load Balancers.
- Identity & Access Management (IAM) – Role‑based access, MFA.
- Monitoring & Logging – CloudWatch, Stackdriver, Azure Monitor.
- Security & Compliance – Encryption, CSP, SOC, GDPR.
Common Use‑Cases
- Web & mobile application hosting.
- Big data processing and analytics.
- Disaster recovery & backup.
- AI/ML model training and inference.
- IoT device data ingestion.
- DevOps & CI/CD pipelines.
- Enterprise SaaS deployments.
Security & Shared Responsibility
Cloud security follows a shared responsibility model:
- Provider secures the underlying infrastructure.
- Customer secures their data, applications, and access controls.
- Best practices: encrypt data at rest and in transit, use multi‑factor authentication, audit logs, and regular penetration testing.