Cloud
Cloud Computing Fundamentals
“The cloud” is someone else’s computer that you reach over the internet, under a contract you can name. This guide separates mail-in-the-browser from virtual machines, and shows why a move is a sequence rather than a slogan.
Three meanings people mix together
Software as a service (SaaS) is an application you use in a browser or an app: Microsoft 365, many bookkeeping tools, many CRMs. You do not patch the server. You still own the data and the logins.
Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is closer to renting a computer in someone else’s hall. Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, and Google Cloud sell this. Someone still has to design, update, and watch that computer. Platform services sit in between: you write or configure more than a SaaS app, less than a whole operating system.
When a colleague says “we should move to the cloud”, ask which of those three they mean. Moving mail to Microsoft 365 is not the same project as building a server in Azure.
Azure, in the amount a non-specialist needs
Azure is Microsoft’s cloud platform for subscriptions, virtual networks, and workloads. It is easy to open a subscription with a credit card and then forget a test machine that still bills. If you are learning, use Microsoft’s own learning material for labs, and delete resources when the lab ends.
This website is not a Microsoft partner and does not operate Azure subscriptions. The useful beginner habit is account hygiene: who is the subscription owner, is MFA on that account, and is there a budget alert. Those are the same account habits as in fundamentals, applied to a credit-backed portal.
Walk-through: describe one cloud app you already use
- Pick one web application the office pays for.
- Write the vendor name, the URL you actually sign in at, and whether it uses your Microsoft 365 login or a separate password.
- Write down what unique data it holds: invoices, client lists, emails, files.
- Find the export or backup control in that product’s own help, or write “none found”.
- Write who can add users. If the answer is “an old contractor’s personal Gmail”, that is the next problem to solve, before any migration.
Repeat for two more apps. You now have a cloud map. Most “we are already in the cloud” arguments stop being vague after this list exists.
When a move makes sense, and when it does not
A move makes sense when the current system cannot be restored, cannot be reached by people who work off-site, or is a single PC under someone’s desk. A move does not make sense when the only reason is a slogan, or when the application has no supported cloud path.
- Write what you are moving: mail, files, one line-of-business app, or a server workload.
- Write who will still be able to work on the day of the move, and who will wait.
- Write how you will check that it worked: send a mail, open a file, post an invoice.
- Write what you will do if it did not work: the old system stays readable until you say otherwise.
- Only then look at product comparison tables.
Industrial control, medical devices, and emergency systems are outside this guide. So is any instruction to copy data out of a system you are not allowed to export.
Cost and leftover resources
Cloud bills surprise people when test machines, old snapshots, and forgotten regions stay on. If you can see a bill, read it once a month. If you cannot see a bill, you are not the person who can manage cost, and you should not promise savings.
Deleting a resource is part of learning. A lab that stays up for six months is how a “free trial” becomes a line on a statement. Microsoft, Amazon, and Google each document how to delete a resource group or project. Use their steps.
Common mistakes
Creating a second tenant or a second subscription because the first login was confusing, then splitting files across both. Uploading the only copy of a file into a personal consumer account. Assuming a vendor backup exists because the application is “in the cloud”. For backup reality, see data backup education.
Also common: using a personal credit card for a company Azure subscription, then leaving the company. Ownership follows the account.
Cloud checklist
- You can explain SaaS versus a rented virtual machine in one sentence each.
- You have a list of the web apps the office actually uses, with URLs and login types.
- You know who owns the billing account for each, or you have written “unknown”.
- You have not opened a new cloud subscription this week “just to look” without a deletion plan.
- You treat Microsoft 365 as one cloud app among others, not as a synonym for all cloud computing.
- You know this site will not migrate or administer those platforms for you.
Questions people ask
Is Microsoft 365 the same as Azure?
No. Microsoft 365 is mainly the workplace apps and their tenant. Azure is a platform for building and running other workloads. They can share identity. They are not interchangeable words.
Will you move our servers?
No. The guide is for learning how to think about a move. It is not a migration project.
Copies still matter in the cloud
Vendor history helps. Independent restores are still a separate habit.