What Is Cloud Computing?

Borrow capacity on demand

Cloud computing means renting compute, storage, networking, and higher-level services from a provider over the internet. You request resources when you need them and stop paying when you release them, instead of buying and housing machines yourself.

Focus on outcomes

• Run applications without managing physical hardware
• Scale capacity up or down as traffic changes
• Pay for what you use, often by the hour, second, or gigabyte
• Use managed services such as databases, queues, and content delivery

Know the major providers

Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) are the largest public cloud platforms. The ideas in this course apply across them; product names differ, but the building blocks—compute, storage, networks, identity, and billing—are shared.

Try a first CLI peek

Each provider offers a command-line tool for accounts and resources. After you install and sign in, listing regions or accounts is a safe first check that credentials work.

# AWS
aws sts get-caller-identity

# Azure
az account show

# Google Cloud
gcloud config get-value project