The Silent but Powerful World of Cloud: An Introduction

I bet you’ve come across the joke that God was the first person to write anything on tablets and Moses was the first person to download information from the cloud.

I never quite got the joke—or even paid much attention to it. But after diving into the world of cloud computing, boy, does it hit differently!

When I started learning about the cloud, purely by happenstance, I didn’t expect to be as fascinated as I am now. It felt like Charlie when he stepped into Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory—with his eyes widening from learning about the wondrous place where everything works together in ways both magical and precise. I remember him being bewildered when watching how the most delicious chocolates and candies are made, how flavours are mixed, how conveyor belts move ingredients seamlessly through different parts of the factory. And even how maintenance kept everything running smoothly and how all the levers and gears work together to produce a perfectly packaged Wonka Bar.

That’s what learning about the cloud was like for me. I uncovered the role of cloud technology and its intricate systems in our daily lives, and it left me mind blown.

Have you ever wondered how emails always reach their intended recipient without losing or distorting the message? Or how Microsoft Teams connects people across continents in real time? What about Google Cloud, which safely stores the photos you upload for as long as you’d like? The benefits of cloud computing stretch far and wide, underpinning modern conveniences like payment systems that allocate temporary storage for your precious digital valuables. And don’t forget the engineering behind the world’s current super apps like Uber, Netflix, Glovo, and Software such as Microsoft's Outlook 365.

Think about the mountains of data we generate every day—not just the data itself but also the metadata (data about the data). Take an online shopping platform like Jumia, Amazon or even Carrefour as an example. When you purchase an item, data is generated about what you bought e.g. the item, the brand, the quantity, price, etc. But metadata captures deeper insights, like how long it takes for your order to move through inventory, seller, and delivery systems & the average TATs.?Now multiply that by millions of products, processed every second, from countless locations around the world. Yet somehow, orders rarely get lost or mixed up. Systems manage inventory hits, queue processes, and scale resources on demand, all in perfect harmony.

The world of cloud computing is what holds everything together—a silent yet powerful force that shapes our digital age. Next, I’ll share real - life application of cloud functions and how it is powering an app near you! Stay tuned :).