Cloud Computing & Evolution of Computing

Cloud computing has transformed the way businesses and developers build, deploy, and scale applications. Instead of owning and maintaining physical servers, we can now use computing resources over the internet, paying only for what we use.

Cloud computing is the delivery of computing services like servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics, and more

Evolution of Computing

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here are the way we use computers has evolved over time. Let’s break it down:

1. Dedicated/On-Premises Servers

• Companies bought physical servers and hardware.
• Pros: Full control over infrastructure.
• Cons: Expensive, difficult to scale, maintenance-heavy.

2. Virtual Machines (VMs)

• One physical server hosts multiple virtual servers.
• Pros: Better hardware utilization, easier to scale than dedicated servers.
• Cons: Still requires management of OS, patching, backups.

3. Containers

• Lightweight, portable units that package code and dependencies.
• Run on shared OS kernel (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes).
• Pros: Fast startup, easy to deploy, great for microservices.
• Cons: Still need orchestration and infrastructure knowledge.

4. Functions / Serverless Computing

• Run code without managing servers (e.g., AWS Lambda, Azure Functions).
• Pros: Automatic scaling, pay-per-use, very fast development.
• Cons: Limited execution time, stateless by default, vendor lock-in.

By : Dulaj Thilakasiri

To be continued…