Week #21: Cloud Computing

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Cloud computing is the on-demand delivery of IT resources via the internet, with pay-as-you-go pricing. Instead of buying, owning, and maintaining physical data centers and servers, you can access technology services, such as computing power, storage, and databases, on an as-needed basis from a cloud provider like Amazon Web Services.

Organizations of every type, size, and industry are using the cloud for a wide variety of use cases, such as data backup, disaster recovery, email, virtual desktops, software development and testing, big data analytics, and customer-facing web applications. For example:

• Health care companies are using the cloud to develop more personalized treatments for patients.
• Financial services companies are using the cloud to power real-time fraud detection and prevention.
• Video game makers are using the cloud to deliver online games to millions of players around the world.

With cloud computing, your business can become more agile, reduce costs, instantly scale, and deploy globally in minutes. Cloud computing gives you instant access to a broad range of technologies so you can innovate faster and build nearly anything you can imagine—from infrastructure services such as compute, storage, and databases to internet of things, machine learning, data analytics, and much more.

You can deploy technology services in a matter of minutes and move from idea to implementation significantly faster than before. This flexibility gives you the freedom to experiment and test new ideas, differentiate customer experiences, and transform your business. For instance, you could add machine learning and intelligence to your applications to personalize experiences and improve customer engagement.

With cloud computing, there is no need to make large upfront investments in hardware or overpay for unused capacity. Instead, you can trade capital expense for variable expense and only pay for IT as you consume it. You access resources from the cloud in real-time as they're needed, scaling them up or down to match your business needs.

Cloud computing also makes it easy to expand to new regions and deploy globally in minutes. For example, Amazon Web Services has infrastructure worldwide, allowing you to deploy applications in multiple physical locations with just a few clicks. Positioning applications closer to end-users reduces latency and enhances their experience.

No matter your location, size, or industry, the cloud frees you from managing infrastructure and data centers, allowing you to focus on what matters most to your business.