what is cloud computing?

Cloud computing is a way of using information technology (IT) services through a remote server on the internet. There are multiple services which might include services like database storage, applications, compute power and other IT resources over the pay-what-you-use pricing approach(pay for the services you are using and only for the time you are using).

Important features of the cloud platform

• Users get computing resources that are on-demand(what you demand and when you demand, you will get) and self-service. Through a web interface(GUIor simply a web page ), users get the processing power, storage, and network they need with no need for human intervention(no physical requirements).

• A person having a valid user account of the cloud platform with all credentials must get access to those resources which he has taken, over the Internet, from any location in the world if they have an Internet connection.

• The cloud provider has a big pool of resources such as storage, compute engines, servers etc. and allocates them to users out of that pool on demand of the users. That allows the provider to buy in bulk and distribute to the various users. users don't have to worry about the exact physical location of the resources.

• The resources are elastic–which means they’re flexible, so If users need more of the previously used resources they can get more, and quickly. If they feel like they now don't need the number of resources they needed earlier, they can scale back or in simple words, they can deallocate them.

• Users have to pay only for what they use or what they have reserved. If they stop using resources, they stop paying for it.

why cloud computing and how it started?

The trend toward cloud computing and the rise of the cloud computing model can be understood through the rise of the following waves:-

\>>> First wave:- "colocation". Colocation gave users the financial efficiency of renting physical space, instead of investing in data center real estate.

\>>> Second wave:-"Virtualized data centers" The components of virtualized data centers are hosted computing servers, CPUs, disks, load balancers, and so on but now they’re virtual devices.

With virtualization, enterprises still maintain the infrastructure; but it also remains a user-controlled and user-configured environment.

\>>>Third wave:- "cloud" that consists of a combination of automated services and scalable data. Services automatically provision and configure the infrastructure used to run applications.