A county parks department still runs every app in one basement server room and asks what "the cloud" means beyond someone else's computers. Which statement best defines cloud computing?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
Think of cloud like a utility meter, not a basement full of boxes. You pull compute, storage, and network over the internet when you need them, and you can grow or shrink without a hardware shopping trip. That on-demand, elastic self-service idea is the core definition—not one vendor logo or one SKU.
Full Explanation
Cloud computing is the on-demand delivery of IT resources—compute, storage, and networking—over the internet, typically with elastic capacity and self-service provisioning. It is a service model, not a single product name or Azure SKU. Owning or co-locating hardware may place servers off-site, but without those service traits it is not cloud computing by the fundamentals definition.