Cloud platforms have revolutionized the way businesses deploy, manage, and scale their applications. They offer a range of services that allow organizations to focus on their core business activities while leveraging the power of scalable and flexible infrastructure. This section will cover the basics of cloud platforms, their benefits, and key providers in the market.

A cloud platform is a suite of services provided over the internet that allows businesses to build, deploy, and manage applications without the need for on-premises infrastructure. These platforms offer various services, including computing power, storage, databases, networking, and more.

Cloud services are generally categorized into three main types:

1. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): Provides virtualized computing resources over the internet. Examples include Amazon EC2 and Google Compute Engine.
2. Platform as a Service (PaaS): Offers hardware and software tools over the internet, typically for application development. Examples include Google App Engine and Microsoft Azure App Services.
3. Software as a Service (SaaS): Delivers software applications over the internet, on a subscription basis. Examples include Salesforce and Google Workspace.

• Scalability: Easily scale resources up or down based on demand.
• Cost Efficiency: Pay only for what you use, reducing capital expenditure.
• Flexibility: Access resources from anywhere with an internet connection.
• Disaster Recovery: Built-in redundancy and backup solutions.
• Security: Advanced security features and compliance certifications.

AWS is one of the most popular cloud platforms, offering a wide range of services, including computing, storage, databases, machine learning, and more.

Example Services:

• Amazon EC2: Scalable virtual servers.
• Amazon S3: Object storage service.
• Amazon RDS: Managed relational database service.

Azure is a comprehensive cloud platform by Microsoft, providing services for computing, analytics, storage, and networking.

Example Services:

• Azure Virtual Machines: Scalable virtual servers.
• Azure Blob Storage: Object storage service.
• Azure SQL Database: Managed relational database service.

GCP offers a suite of cloud computing services by Google, including computing, data storage, data analytics, and machine learning.

Example Services:

• Google Compute Engine: Scalable virtual servers.
• Google Cloud Storage: Object storage service.
• Google BigQuery: Managed data warehouse service.

1. Create an AWS Account: Sign up for an AWS account at aws.amazon.com.
2. Launch an EC2 Instance:
   • Go to the EC2 Dashboard.
   • Click "Launch Instance".
   • Choose an Amazon Machine Image (AMI).
   • Select an instance type (e.g., t2.micro for free tier).
   • Configure instance details and add storage.
   • Add tags and configure security groups (allow HTTP and SSH).
   • Review and launch the instance.
3. Connect to the EC2 Instance:
   • Use an SSH client to connect to the instance using the provided key pair.
   • Example command: ssh -i "your-key-pair.pem" ec2-user@your-ec2-public-dns
4. Install a Web Server:
   • Update the package index: sudo yum update -y
   • Install Apache: sudo yum install httpd -y
   • Start the Apache service: sudo service httpd start
5. Deploy Your Web Application:
   • Upload your web application files to the /var/www/html directory.
   • Example command: scp -i "your-key-pair.pem" index.html ec2-user@your-ec2-public-dns:/var/www/html/
6. Access Your Web Application:
   • Open a web browser and navigate to your EC2 instance's public DNS.

1. Create a Google Cloud account.
2. Launch a Compute Engine instance.
3. Connect to the instance using SSH.
4. Install a web server (e.g., Apache or Nginx).
5. Deploy a simple HTML file to the web server.
6. Access the web application via the instance's public IP.

1. Create a Google Cloud Account: Sign up at cloud.google.com.
2. Launch a Compute Engine Instance:
   • Go to the Compute Engine Dashboard.
   • Click "Create Instance".
   • Configure instance details and click "Create".
3. Connect to the Instance:
   • Use the SSH button in the Google Cloud Console to connect.
4. Install a Web Server:
   • Update the package index: sudo apt-get update
   • Install Apache: sudo apt-get install apache2 -y
   • Start the Apache service: sudo systemctl start apache2
5. Deploy Your Web Application:
   • Upload your web application files to the /var/www/html directory.
   • Example command: gcloud compute scp index.html your-instance-name:/var/www/html/
6. Access Your Web Application:
   • Open a web browser and navigate to your instance's public IP.

In this section, we explored the fundamentals of cloud platforms, their benefits, and key providers like AWS, Azure, and GCP. We also walked through a practical example of deploying a web application on AWS. Understanding cloud platforms is crucial for designing scalable and robust system architectures. In the next section, we will delve into containers and orchestration, which are essential for modern cloud-native applications.