Cloud Services Overview
This documentation provides a comprehensive overview of cloud computing services offered by major providers like Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud. Understanding these services is crucial for modern application development, data management, and scalable infrastructure deployment.
Cloud computing is the delivery of computing services—including servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics, and intelligence—over the Internet (“the cloud”) to offer faster innovation, flexible resources, and economies of scale. You typically pay only for cloud services you use, helping lower your operating costs, run your infrastructure more efficiently and scale as your business needs change.
Compute Services
Compute services are the backbone of cloud infrastructure, providing the processing power needed to run applications and perform various computing tasks. Key services include virtual machines, containers, and serverless functions.
Virtual Machines (VMs)
On-demand, scalable computing resources. Offers full control over operating systems and environments.
Containers
Package applications and their dependencies for consistent deployment across environments. Often managed with orchestration services.
Serverless Functions
Event-driven compute that runs code in response to triggers, without managing servers. Ideal for microservices and event processing.
Storage Services
Cloud storage services offer durable, scalable, and accessible data storage solutions for various needs, from object storage to block storage and file systems.
Object Storage
Highly scalable storage for unstructured data like images, videos, and backups. Accessed via HTTP APIs.
Block Storage
High-performance storage volumes for virtual machines, similar to hard drives. Offers low latency.
File Storage
Managed network file shares that can be accessed by multiple VMs simultaneously. Useful for shared application data.
Networking Services
Cloud networking services enable secure and reliable connectivity between your cloud resources, your on-premises data centers, and the internet.
Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) / Virtual Network (VNet)
Logically isolated sections of the cloud where you can launch resources in a virtual network you define.
Load Balancing
Distributes incoming network traffic across multiple targets, such as virtual machines or containers.
Content Delivery Network (CDN)
Delivers static and dynamic web content to users with low latency and high availability.
Database Services
Managed database services simplify database deployment, management, and scaling, offering a wide range of relational and NoSQL options.
Relational Databases
Managed versions of popular SQL databases like PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server, and Oracle.
NoSQL Databases
Flexible, scalable databases for various data models including document, key-value, wide-column, and graph.
In-Memory Databases
High-performance databases that store data in RAM for extremely fast data retrieval.
AI & Machine Learning Services
Leverage powerful AI and ML services to build intelligent applications, gain insights from data, and automate complex tasks.
Machine Learning Platforms
End-to-end platforms for building, training, and deploying ML models.
Pre-trained AI Services
Ready-to-use AI services for vision, speech, language understanding, and more.
Serverless Computing
Serverless architecture allows developers to build and run applications and services without thinking about servers. The cloud provider handles the infrastructure.
Functions as a Service (FaaS)
Event-driven execution of code snippets. Examples include AWS Lambda, Azure Functions, and Google Cloud Functions.
Backend as a Service (BaaS)
Services that provide backend functionalities like authentication, databases, and storage, accessible via APIs.
Containers & Orchestration
Containerization technology packages applications and their dependencies into isolated units, ensuring consistency and portability. Orchestration services manage these containers at scale.
Container Registries
Services for storing and managing container images.
Managed Kubernetes Services
Fully managed Kubernetes clusters for deploying, scaling, and managing containerized applications.