Virtualization and Cloud Computing (Core 1)

Infrastructure as a Service — rented computing infrastructure (virtual machines, storage, and networking) that you manage from the operating system up.

Amazon EC2 and Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines — both rent out virtual servers that the customer configures and manages.

Platform as a Service — a ready-made development and deployment environment (runtime, databases, tools) so developers can build apps without managing servers. Examples: Heroku, AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Azure App Service.

Software as a Service — complete, ready-to-use applications delivered over the internet, with the provider managing everything. Examples: Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Salesforce.

IaaS gives the most control (you manage OS, apps, and data); SaaS gives the least (the provider manages everything except your data and settings). PaaS sits in between.

A cloud whose services are offered over the internet to anyone by a third-party provider (e.g., AWS, Azure, Google Cloud), with resources shared among many customers.