Eli5: what is cloud, in computer networking terms.
In: 5
“The cloud is just someone else’s server”
The Cloud refers to any service (storage, applications, hosting) hosted on the internet that are available for rent.
The point of the cloud model is you are paying someone else to manage the backend for you. This (at least in theory) reduces your cost and overhead to operate that service because someone else is doing the heavy lifting for you.
The reason the symbol of a Cloud is used to represent it, is because in network diagrams a Cloud represents a black box. You know it’s there, you know what it does, but you have no idea how it’s doing that because it’s someone else’s problem. In that sense the internet itself is a Cloud because you don’t know how your ISP is doing what it does, nor do you particularly care.
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