Some computations, models, and analysis can be very hard to deal with through consumer grade (local) computers. Fortunately, even though the solution is rarely free, it's often inexpensive through the advent of cloud computing. Cloud computing is the paradigm that provides users with access to tailor-made (virtual) machines.

Benefiting from economies of scale, several companies are willing to provide consumers with cloud services in exchange for a fee. In addition to really understanding statistics, and knowing how to build and deliver very complicated models, mastering how to work in the cloud is a real game changer in the data science field and can lead you all the way to the big boys' league.

This chapter will give an introduction to cloud computing, using the Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio. We will discuss the following topics:

• Basic types of clouds
• Important aspects of clouds
• How to get started with Azure Machine Learning Studio
• R experience of clouds