As applications became more resource-intensive, more and more computing power was needed. Server rooms with powerful PCs popped up in businesses all over the world, with staff hired to maintain these servers. It soon became obvious that it was far more cost-effective to shift server resources outside of the company to the internet, or what is commonly referred to as the cloud. Thus, cloud computing became a reality.

So, what exactly is cloud computing? Why should an organization use cloud computing? The following high-level diagram shows what cloud computing looks like:

As you can see, the servers, applications, and database storage exist in the cloud. These resources are accessed by the client's device (in this case, cell phone or PC) through the internet. Companies that push their resources to the cloud do not have to carry the expense or worry of running a server room. They pay only for the resources they use, thus they reduce their expenses.

One of the first cloud services offered was the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (or EC2). EC2 is central to Amazon's cloud service offering, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and was released to the public in 2006. Other cloud service providers include the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and Microsoft Azure.