What is Cloud Computing?

You'll learn: What cloud computing means and how it's different from traditional IT infrastructure.

The Core Idea

Imagine you want to watch a movie. You could buy a DVD player, purchase the DVD, and store it on your shelf—that's like traditional on-premises infrastructure. Or you could stream it instantly from Netflix without owning any physical equipment—that's cloud computing.

Cloud computing means using computing resources (servers, storage, databases, networking, software) over the internet instead of owning and maintaining physical equipment yourself. Instead of buying, installing, and managing your own hardware in a server room, you rent what you need from a cloud provider like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud Platform.

Key Differences

Traditional On-Premises

• You buy and own physical servers
• You maintain the hardware and facility
• You pay upfront costs regardless of usage
• Scaling up requires purchasing new equipment (takes weeks)

Cloud Computing

• You rent resources over the internet
• The provider maintains everything
• You pay only for what you use (like a utility bill)
• Scaling happens instantly with a few clicks

Real-World Scenario

A startup needs a website. With on-premises infrastructure, they'd spend $50,000 on servers that sit mostly idle. With cloud computing, they start small, paying perhaps $20/month, and scale up automatically as their business grows.

Key Takeaway: Cloud computing delivers computing resources as an on-demand service over the internet, eliminating the need to own and maintain physical infrastructure—you pay for what you use, when you use it.