Key Concepts
- Running on the cloud: Hosted on remote servers — users access via browser or app.
- Leveraging cloud services: Use on-demand services for storage, processing and networking.
- Decoupling client and server: UI (client-side) talks to server-side for data and heavy processing; limited caching enables offline use.
Benefits
Scalability
Scale up or down automatically to match demand without owning hardware.
Flexibility
Access from any device and enable remote development and collaboration.
Cost-efficiency
Pay-as-you-go reduces upfront investments and lowers TCO.
Faster development
Cloud tools and managed services speed up build and deployment cycles.
Collaboration
Centralized environment enables real-time collaboration across teams and users.
How it works in practice
- User opens an app on their phone and creates or edits a document.
- The app's processing and storage happen on remote servers in a data center.
- Changes are saved to the cloud; offline edits are cached locally and synced later.
- The same updated data is available when the user logs in from another device.
Practical considerations
- Design for latency and handle intermittent connectivity gracefully.
- Use managed services for databases, storage, and authentication to speed delivery.
- Plan for monitoring, autoscaling, backups, and disaster recovery.