How would you explain cloud computing to your grandmother?

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How would you explain cloud computing to your grandmother?

Asked at Google over a year ago

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Lokesh Kumar R · Answer 1 · 2021-08-01T14:40:52+0000

Use this framework to answer this Google technical question interview question.

Cloud computing is like going out to a restaurant instead of cooking dinner at home.

When we cook at home, we have to do everything yourself. we use your own plates, pots, and pans. We have to know how many people are coming over and buy the right amount of ingredients. If more people join for dinner than you expected, you'll run out of food! But if fewer people show up, then you'll have leftovers that go to waste. And on top of it all, we have to do all the cooking, set up, and clean up yourself.

Before cloud computing existed, running an Internet business was actually pretty similar: One had to buy one's own computers or rent dedicated servers from someone else. They also had to predict the number of visitors who would come to their website and make sure the servers could handle that traffic.

With cloud computing, on the other hand, it's more like going to a big restaurant or cafeteria. Restaurants can handle groups of all sizes because they (usually) have more than enough food and plates to go around. If more friends want to join, the restaurant can move some tables around and give you more room. You're going to pay more on average than cooking yourself, but you only pay for what you eat.

Cloud computing providers like AWS & Google Cloud are similar. They have nearly unlimited computing power which allows you to worry about your business instead of buying and maintaining computers. As your business grows, you simply pay for what you need. Like fancy restaurants that offer exotic menu items, cloud platforms also offer new technologies that you can't find at home, like machine learning and more. And best of all—no washing dishes!

Ujjwald · Answer 2 · 2024-07-12T10:30:38+0000

When you say cloud computing, are you asking me to explain the process of cloud storage or the concept of virtual CPUs etc. I will try to explain the overall concept of the cloud storage and processing here.

Some context. My grandmother stores a lot of stuff in her house but the important stuff that can be lost, she actually chooses to rent a locker in the bank. So I would explain to her that when she has to put something in her bank locker, she has to go to the bank with a specific key that opens the locker. Now, after validating her identity (using biometrics), she would be taken to the locker area, where there are tens, if not hundreds of lockers. She will be guided to her specific locker number, which she can open and either take things from there, or put things back in there. The thing to be noted here is that the infrastructure (the bank, the locker area, the locker itself) are not owned by her. She only pays a yearly rent based on the size of the locker she has. If this is a smaller locker, it will cost lower and if it is a bigger locker, it will cost much more. She only owns the items in the locker but nothing else.

Similarly, cloud computing is basically taking computing resources on rent based on how many people you service and how much data you want to store. The infrastructure (CPUs, memory, etc.) will be provided by the cloud providers (AWS, Azure, GCP, etc.) and you can deploy your applications on those resources. You can have peace of mind knowing that you don't have to worry about running your own servers, as that is now taken care of. You can focus completely on building and scaling your applications, which is your primary passion area.