Mirco Cloud Primer
Free · Vendor-neutral · Beginner-first
Cloud computing, explained plainly.
Mirco Cloud Primer is a plain-English library of cloud computing concepts — built for beginners, students, non-technical professionals, and small-business owners who want to understand the cloud without wading through jargon or sales pitches.
Five categories, one clear path through the cloud
Every concept and article on this site belongs to one of five categories. Start wherever matches your question.
Six concepts to start with
If you only learn six terms today, make it these — they unlock almost everything else in the library.
Cloud Computing
Renting computing power, storage, or software over the internet instead of owning and running the hardware yourself.
IaaS
You rent raw infrastructure — servers, storage, networking — and bring your own operating system and software.
PaaS
You rent a ready-to-use platform for building and running applications, without managing the underlying servers.
SaaS
You use finished software over the internet — someone else runs and maintains everything behind it.
Virtual Machine
A software-based computer that behaves like a real one, running inside a physical machine alongside others.
Container
A lightweight, portable package that bundles an application with everything it needs to run consistently anywhere.
Why trust this library
Every concept and article is written for beginners first, grounded in public, dated sources — primarily the NIST definition of cloud computing and relevant RFCs — and reviewed on a visible schedule. We name no vendor as "best," run no comparisons of vendor pricing, and never invent statistics, experts, or testimonials.
What we are not
- Not a replacement for official vendor documentation.
- Not a certification prep course or a job-placement promise.
- Not a price comparison tool — we don't publish or compare vendor costs.
- Not written or reviewed by any cloud vendor.