Which of the following is a key difference between distributed computing and cloud computing? 

Cloud computing involves delivering various services like storage, databases, and applications over the internet, allowing users to access resources on demand. In contrast, distributed computing involves a network of computers that work together to perform tasks as a unified system, sharing computational workloads. In distributed computing, tasks are divided across multiple machines (often geographically separated) that collaborate to complete large-scale processing tasks, whereas cloud computing abstracts resources and delivers them via a service model. Why other options are wrong: a) Cloud computing is location-dependent, while distributed computing is location-independent : Cloud computing is  location-independent since services are accessible from anywhere over the internet. b) Distributed computing emphasizes resource pooling, while cloud computing emphasizes elasticity : Both computing paradigms emphasize resource pooling, and elasticity is a core feature of both. d) Distributed computing relies on virtualization, while cloud computing does not : Virtualization is used heavily in cloud computing; both paradigms use virtualization for resource optimization. e) Cloud computing is used for HPC (High-Performance Computing), whereas distributed computing is not : Both cloud and distributed computing are used for HPC applications, as they both enable large-scale computational processing.