When people say "the cloud", they just mean someone else's computer. But there are different levels of cloud service — from renting a whole server to just using an app. See the difference.
Instead of buying and maintaining your own servers, you rent computing power from companies like Amazon (AWS), Microsoft (Azure), or Google Cloud. They handle the hardware — you just use it.
This famous analogy explains the different service levels. Click each to see what you manage vs what the provider manages.
Green = the cloud provider manages it. Blue = you manage it.
| Layer | 🏠 On-Prem | 🖥️ IaaS | 🛠️ PaaS | 📱 SaaS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Applications | You | You | You | Provider |
| Data | You | You | You | Provider |
| Runtime / Middleware | You | You | Provider | Provider |
| Operating System | You | You | Provider | Provider |
| Servers / Storage | You | Provider | Provider | Provider |
| Networking / Physical | You | Provider | Provider | Provider |