1.2.1. Cloud Computing: Key Characteristics (On-demand, Scalability)

💡 First Principle: Cloud computing provides on-demand access to shared, scalable computing resources over the internet, offering elasticity, global reach, and managed services.

Cloud computing offers several distinct characteristics that differentiate it from traditional IT infrastructure. These characteristics provide significant benefits to businesses.

Key Characteristics of Cloud Computing:

• On-demand self-service: Users can provision computing resources (e.g., servers, storage) as needed, automatically, without human interaction from the cloud provider.
• Broad network access: Resources are available over the network and accessed through standard mechanisms.
• Resource pooling: Multiple users share the same underlying hardware, with resources dynamically assigned and reassigned according to demand.
• Rapid elasticity: Resources can be scaled up or down quickly and automatically to meet fluctuating demand, without significant manual effort. This is a key aspect of scalability.
• Measured service: Usage of resources is monitored, controlled, and reported, allowing for transparent billing based on actual consumption.

Scenario: A new online retailer experiences a sudden, massive increase in customer traffic during a holiday sale. Their website slows down significantly. If they were using cloud computing, they would have been able to handle this.

Reflection Question: How do "on-demand self-service" and "rapid elasticity" fundamentally enable a business to quickly adjust its computing resources (scale up or down) to meet sudden, unpredictable changes in customer demand, ensuring consistent performance?