The 6 Advantages of Cloud Computing
Learn AWS's official six advantages of cloud computing and why they explain how organizations think about moving to the cloud.
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:
- Name and describe the six advantages of cloud computing.
- Match each advantage to a real-world business scenario.
- Explain the difference between capital expense (CapEx) and operational expense (OpEx).
Why This Matters
AWS publishes an official list of six advantages of cloud computing. Understanding each one — and recognizing it in a real scenario — is the foundation for everything that follows in this course.
The 6 Advantages
Trade Capital Expense for Variable Expense
Instead of investing heavily in data centers and servers before you know how you'll use them, you pay only when you consume computing resources — and only for how much you consume.
Real-world scenario
A retailer pays $2M upfront for servers that sit idle 11 months of the year. On AWS, they pay only during peak season.
CapEx vs. OpEx — A Quick Comparison
Capital Expense
CapEx
Operational Expense
OpEx
Moving to the cloud does not guarantee lower costs. It changes the structure of costs from fixed and upfront to variable and usage-based. Total cost depends on how well you architect.
Matching Advantages to Scenarios
Match each scenario to its advantage
Examples
Choose one, then match it on the right
Characteristics
Select an example first
0 of 6 matched so far.
Summary
The core shift across all six advantages is from fixed, upfront, guess-based infrastructure to variable, on-demand, global infrastructure.