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What is cloud computing?

Have you ever wondered what cloud computing is? Watch this video to learn about cloud computing and how it works.

In the previous step you were introduced to the activity and what the desired learning outcomes are for the activity. In this step you will learn about cloud computing.

Have you ever wondered what cloud computing is? It’s the delivery of computing services over the internet, which is otherwise known as the cloud. These services include servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics, and intelligence. Cloud computing offers faster innovation, flexible resources, and economies of scale.

Why is cloud computing typically cheaper to use?

Cloud computing is the delivery of computing services over the internet by using a pay-as-you-go pricing model. You typically pay only for the cloud services you use, which helps you:

  • Lower your operating costs.
  • Run your infrastructure more efficiently.
  • Scale as your business needs change. To put it another way, cloud computing is a way to rent compute power and storage from someone else’s datacenter. You can treat cloud resources like you would resources in your own datacenter. When you’re done using them, you give them back. You’re billed only for what you use.

Instead of maintaining CPUs and storage in your datacenter, you rent them for the time that you need them. The cloud provider takes care of maintaining the underlying infrastructure for you. The cloud enables you to quickly solve your toughest business challenges, and bring cutting-edge solutions to your users.

Why should I move to the cloud?

The cloud helps you move faster and innovate in ways that were once nearly impossible.

In our ever-changing digital world, two trends emerge:

  • Teams deliver new features to their users at record speeds.
  • Users expect an increasingly rich and immersive experience with their devices and with software. Software releases were once scheduled in terms of months or even years. Today, teams release features in smaller batches that are often scheduled in days or weeks. Some teams even deliver software updates continuously–sometimes with multiple releases within the same day.

Think of all the ways you interact with devices that you couldn’t do a few years ago. Many devices can recognize your face and respond to voice commands. Augmented reality changes the way you interact with the physical world. Household appliances are even beginning to act intelligently. These technologies are only a few examples, and many of them are powered by the cloud.

To power your services and deliver innovative and novel user experiences more quickly, the cloud provides on-demand access to:

  • A nearly limitless pool of raw compute, storage, and networking components.
  • Speech recognition and other cognitive services that help make your application stand out from the crowd.
  • Analytics services that deliver telemetry data from your software and devices.

In the following step, you will learn about Azure fundamentals and understand what Azure is. Remember to click on Mark as complete and then Next to continue.

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Introduction to Microsoft Azure Fundamentals

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