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Biagio J Mendolia
Biagio J Mendolia

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What is Cloud Computing?

Something that has always interested me is the "Cloud". What is it? How does it work? These are a few of the questions I had that drove me to start studying for the AWS Cloud Practitioner Certification! I picked up a course on Udemy which, so far, has done a great job breaking down traditional computing while introducing cloud computing.
Traditionally, companies would have to have a data center, or server room, to store their servers that host their website. This works however it does get costly and problems arise if the company/ website starts to scale! When going the traditional route, companies face these factors:

  • Rent for the Data center
  • Power supply, cooling and maintenance for the servers
  • Adding and replacing hardware can get costly and takes time
  • Scaling is limited The cloud was created to address these factors!

Cloud computing makes computing power, database storage and other IT resources available on demand! Cloud service platforms allow users to pay as the go and only for the services they use and need. This means that all the above factors are taken care of for the company by the cloud service platform. I was surprised and impressed to find out that Netflix is built on AWS!
Some advantages of cloud computing are:

  • Trading capital expense for operational expense
  • Scale based on actual measured usage
  • Increase speed and agility

So far, it seems like cloud computing is going to become more and more popular with companies because it “outsources” hardware storage and maintenance which allows the company to focus on growth rather than if their hardware can handle the growth!

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