What is the difference between cloud computing and traditional IT infrastructure?

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Accepted Answer

Cloud computing rents resources on-demand from a provider; traditional IT owns and operates physical hardware in private data centers. Cost model — cloud is opex (pay-as-you-go); traditional is capex (buy servers upfront, depreciate). Scalability — cloud scales in minutes via Auto Scaling; traditional requires procurement cycles (weeks to months). Time-to-market — cloud lets you ship in days; traditional requires data-center build-out. Maintenance — cloud provider handles hardware, networking, hypervisor; traditional needs an ops team for everything. Global reach — cloud spans 33+ Regions; traditional limited to where you build. Why startups go cloud-first: no upfront capex, infinite scale, and global launch in hours. Frame it as capex vs opex and elastic vs fixed. The 'no upfront investment' line is the punchline most interviewers want to hear.