Cloud Architecture and Services

Cloud Architecture and Services

Cloud architecture defines how cloud services are structured and connected. Understanding compute, storage, database, and networking enables designing scalable solutions.

Compute Services

VMs (EC2, Azure VMs): full OS control. Containers (ECS, AKS, GKE): lightweight, portable. Serverless (Lambda, Azure Functions): no server management, pay per execution.

Storage Services

Object (S3, Azure Blob): unstructured data. Block (EBS): high-performance for VMs. File (EFS): shared. Storage classes (hot, warm, cold, archive) optimise cost.

Database Services

Relational (RDS, Azure SQL): managed MySQL, PostgreSQL. NoSQL (DynamoDB, Cosmos DB). Data warehouse (Redshift, BigQuery): analytical queries.

Networking

VPC, load balancers, CDN (CloudFront), DNS (Route 53), VPN/Direct Connect.

Serverless

Event-driven functions. Auto-scaling, no idle costs. Limitations: cold starts, time limits, vendor lock-in.

Well-Architected Framework

Five pillars: operational excellence, security, reliability, performance efficiency, cost optimisation.

Summary

Cloud architecture combines compute, storage, database, and networking for effective cloud solutions.