What is Cloud Computing?
Traditionally, if you wanted to run an application, you had to buy:
Physical servers
Storage devices
Networking equipment
Cooling systems
Backup power
Security infrastructure
Cloud providers own this infrastructure and let you use it on demand.
The Three Major Cloud Providers
**1. Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Released: 2006
Company: Amazon Web Services
AWS is the world's largest cloud platform.
****Common Services
- EC2 (Virtual Servers)
- S3 (Object Storage)
- RDS (Managed Databases)
- Lambda (Serverless Functions)
- IAM (Identity & Access Management)
- CloudWatch (Monitoring)
- SageMaker (Machine Learning)
Bedrock (Generative AI)
**Used by
Netflix
- Airbnb
- NASA
- Samsung
BMW
**Strengths
Largest service ecosystem
- Very mature platform
- Excellent scalability
Strong AI and ML offerings
**2. Google Cloud Platform (GCP)**
Released: 2008
Company: Google Cloud
Google Cloud is known for AI, machine learning, big data, and Kubernetes.
**Common Services
- Compute Engine
- Cloud Storage
- Cloud SQL
- BigQuery
- Cloud Run
- Vertex AI
Kubernetes Engine (GKE)
**Used by
- Spotify
- PayPal
- Snapchat
Twitter/X
**Strengths
Excellent AI ecosystem
- Big data analytics
High-performance networking
**3. Microsoft Azure
Released: 2010
Company: Microsoft Azure
Azure is widely adopted by enterprises and organizations already using Microsoft technologies.
**Common Services
- Virtual Machines
- Blob Storage
- Azure SQL Database
- Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
- Azure OpenAI Service
Azure AI Search
**Used by
Walmart
- Adobe
- LinkedIn
- Many government organizations
Large enterprise businesses
**Strengths
Enterprise integration
- Strong business adoption
