Introduction to Cloud Computing

Cloud computing delivers computing resources — servers, storage, databases, networking — over the internet on demand, replacing the need for organisations to own and maintain physical hardware themselves.

From Owning Hardware to Renting Capacity

Before cloud computing became mainstream, running an application meant buying physical servers, housing them in a data centre, and managing their maintenance, power, and cooling yourself. Cloud computing lets you rent exactly the computing capacity you need from a provider, paying only for what you use, and scaling up or down within minutes instead of months.

This shift changed the economics of building software: a small startup can now access the same enterprise-grade infrastructure as a multinational corporation, without any upfront hardware investment.

Core Characteristics

A widely cited definition (from the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology) describes cloud computing through five essential characteristics.

• On-demand self-service — provision resources without human interaction with the provider.
• Broad network access — resources are accessible over the internet from many device types.
• Resource pooling — a provider's resources serve many customers, dynamically assigned as needed.
• Rapid elasticity — capacity can scale up or down quickly, often automatically.
• Measured service — usage is metered, so you pay for what you actually consume.

Common Mistakes

• Assuming "the cloud" is a single specific technology rather than a broad model for delivering IT resources.
• Thinking cloud computing always means lower total cost — without careful management, cloud spending can actually exceed on-premises costs.
• Confusing cloud computing with the internet itself — cloud services run over the internet, but represent a specific delivery model of computing resources.
• Assuming migrating to the cloud automatically solves poor application architecture — badly designed systems remain badly designed, just hosted elsewhere.