What is a cloud provider, and which are the three largest?
Options
- A company that rents computing online: AWS, Azure and Google Cloud (Correct option)
- A company that sells internet cables, like Oracle, IBM or Intel
- A weather service that predicts storms, like AccuWeather
- A type of antivirus program that runs on a remote server
Answer
A company that rents computing resources over the internet (servers, storage, databases); the big three are AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud
Why
Instead of buying and maintaining your own servers, you rent what you need and pay for what you use.
Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) are the three largest providers. Many jobs ask for AWS or Azure.
They offer similar services under different names, so learning one helps with the others.
Remember
Cloud = rented computing. AWS, Azure, GCP.