Cloud computing allows users to access computing resources like data storage and applications over the internet. It has grown rapidly since the early 2000s as companies like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft began offering cloud services. The main components of cloud computing include storage, databases, applications, and infrastructure that can be accessed as services over the internet. There are three main types of cloud - public, private, and hybrid - which differ in who controls the cloud infrastructure. The advantages of cloud computing are lower costs, flexibility, scalability, automatic updates, and redundancy of data. However, it also poses security and connectivity risks if the internet connection is lost.