Cloud computing is the practice of using remote servers hosted on the internet to store, manage, and process data rather than a local server or a personal computer. In simple words,
Cloud computing is the delivery of computing services over the internet.
For an instance,
When you are storing your data in your local system, you only can able to access the data when you have that device in your hand, but if you store the data in the cloud, you can access the data from wherever, whatever device you have by the internet.
Different types of cloud?
Public cloud
Private cloud
Hybrid cloud
What are the benefits of the Cloud?
List of some benefits of the cloud,
Cost Savings.
Security.
Flexibility.
Mobility.
Disaster Recovery.
Scalability.
Different between Cloud and On-premises?
Capital expenditure: upfront spending of money on physical infrastructure.
Operational expenditure: spending money on products and services.
Before we analyze the difference, let us see what are the basic things needed to deploy a data center,
Servers (computers)
Storage (Hard driver)
Network (Routers, cables, Switches).
Backup and archive.
Disaster recovery.
Cooling
Technical persons(To solve the physical issues)
If you are going to deploy the On-premises data center, you need to buy all the things listed above. It's expensive and you have Capital expenses.
If it is cloud, someone else is maintaining the physical environment and we are only going to use the resources and services provided by them. The cost of going with the cloud is less than On-premises. There are no capital expenses, you only need to pay for what you use.
In simple words, renting the server from someone else.
Summary
Cloud computing is the delivery of computing services over the internet. It's a consumption-based model (Pay as you go).
There are no capital expenses in the cloud. The cost of deploying the On-premises is too expensive.