Cloud computing is the on-demand delivery of compute power, database  storage, applications, and other IT resources through a cloud services platform  via the Internet with pay-as-you-go pricing. Whether you are running  applications that share photos to millions of mobile users or you’re supporting  the critical operations of your business, a cloud services platform provides rapid  access to flexible and low-cost IT resources. With cloud computing, you don’t  need to make large upfront investments in hardware and spend a lot of time on  the heavy lifting of managing that hardware. Instead, you can provision exactly  the right type and size of computing resources you need to power your newest  bright idea or operate your IT department. You can access as many resources  as you need, almost instantly, and only pay for what you use. 

Cloud computing provides a simple way to access servers, storage, databases  and a broad set of application services over the Internet. A cloud services  platform, such as Amazon Web Services, owns and maintains the network connected hardware required for these application services, while you provision  and use what you need via a web application.