Most cloud customers consume public cloud computing services over the internet, which are hosted in large, remote data centers maintained by cloud providers. The most common type of cloud computing, SaaS (software as service), delivers prebuilt applications to the browsers of customers who pay per seat or by usage, exemplified by such popular apps as Salesforce, Google Docs, or Microsoft Teams.

5 top trends in cloud computing

Agentic cloud ecosystems: The shift from AI as a tool to AI as an autonomous operator within cloud environments.

Sovereign and localized clouds: Meeting strict national data residency and digital sovereignty laws.

Specialized AI hardware access: Navigating the GPU capacity crunch through reserved instances and boutique AI clouds.