Let's get started with cloud computing. The cloud is a hot topic these days, but what exactly is it? The US National Institute of Standards and Technology created the term cloud computing, although there's nothing US-specific about it.

Cloud computing is a way of using information technology, or IT, that has these five equally important traits. First, customers get computing resources that are on demand and self-service. Through a web interface, users get the processing power, storage, and network they need with no need for human intervention.

Second, customers get access to those resources over the internet, from anywhere they have a connection. Third, the provider of those resources has a large pool of them and allocates them to users out of that pool. That allows the provider to buy in bulk and pass the savings onto the customers.

Customers don't have to know or care about the exact physical location of those resources. Fourth, the resources are elastic, which means that they can increase or decrease as needed, so customers can be flexible. If they need more resources, they can get more, and quickly.

If they need less, they can scale back. And finally, the customers pay only for what they use or reserve as they go. If they stop using resources, they stop paying.

That's it. That's the definition of cloud computing. An infrastructure is the basic underlying framework of facilities and systems.

So it might be helpful to think about IT, or information technology, infrastructure in terms of a city's infrastructure. In a city, the infrastructure includes transportation, communications, power, water, fuel and other essential services. Comparing it to IT infrastructure, the people in the city are like ‘users,’ and the cars, bikes, and buildings are like ‘applications.

’ Everything that goes into creating and supporting those services is the infrastructure. In this course, you'll explore the IT infrastructure services provided by Google Cloud. You'll become familiar enough with the infrastructure services to know what the services do, and you'll start to understand how to use them.