12 notes in this chapter

Cloud Platforms MOC

12 platforms across 3 categories. Unlike other Terms and Knowledge folders, these are compared like Programming Languages notes (Definition, Pros, Cons, Best For, Real Examples, Use Cases), plus a “Core Services & Concepts” section that links each platform’s actual services out to the concept notes already in this vault (Cloud and Infrastructure, Computer Networks, Cybersecurity, Advanced Databases, etc.), so you can see which platform implements which idea.

Hyperscalers

• AWS (Amazon Web Services)
• Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
• Microsoft Azure

Edge & CDN

• Cloudflare
• Akamai
• Fastly

Developer Platforms

• Vercel
• Netlify
• Railway
• Render
• DigitalOcean
• Fly.io

---

How to use this

Use this to pick a platform, not just learn a concept. Cross-reference the “Core Services & Concepts” section of each note against the concept folders elsewhere in the vault to see how the same idea, serverless, CDN, IAM, is implemented differently across vendors.

Suggested order if starting from zero

1. AWS — the default most tutorials and job listings assume
2. Vercel or Netlify — if you’re doing frontend work, the easiest real deploy experience
3. Cloudflare — understand edge computing and CDN from the company that popularized it for developers
4. Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and Microsoft Azure — once you know AWS’s shape, these are fast to compare against it
5. Railway, Render, DigitalOcean, Fly.io — smaller platforms, good for side projects, compare pricing and simplicity tradeoffs
6. Akamai and Fastly — enterprise CDN landscape, useful context even if you won’t touch them day to day