A Brief History of Cloud Computing
THE ORIGINS OF CLOUD COMPUTING
The concept of cloud computing dates back to the earliest years of computing. The notion of an individual personal computer was laughable; computers were expensive, fragile, and rare. Programs were “written” on paper punch cards, which you submitted to the computer operator, then waited hours (or even days) for the output. Punch cards gave way to CRT terminals, but the basic model stayed the same: Computers were designed with the assumption they would run many programs for many users. This was simply the most efficient solution to the limited resources of the day.
PERSONAL COMPUTING
While the introduction of affordable personal computers in the 1970s and 1980s was a huge step forward in many ways, it was a big setback for cloud computing. Most users of this time preferred to store data on floppy drives, rather than in a remote, centralized location. Also, applications of this time were quite platform-dependent; a PC user might have no way of communicating or sharing data with the Apple user next door. It was a big step back for security as well; with system administration now the responsibility of the individual, data loss, crashes, and virus infections became widespread.
MODERN CLOUD COMPUTING
The 1990s saw the world changed by something called the “world wide web.” The ideal of an interconnected world was intoxicating. At first, most users’ Internet needs were simple: look up information, send email, shop, etc. But over time, the way we use the Internet has changed. Cloud computing promises a future where the only local application most users will need is a web browser.
It is believed that the term “cloud” originated in the telecommunications industry. The basic idea is that the most efficient path for data to flow from Point A to Point B cannot be pre-determined by a human operator. Rather, you must trust your switching system to route the data efficiently on a moment-by-moment basis. The term “telecom cloud” refers to this abstract process; basically you broadcast your message into the cloud and trust it to come out the other side, without knowing or caring what happens to your data in between.
Cloud computing, then, can be seen as a movement to apply the telecom industry’s innovations and economies of scale to the computer industry. The first scholarly use of the term “cloud computing” is in a 1997 lecture by Ramnath Chellappa of the University of Texas. Some of the key players in late-twentieth century cloud computing included IBM, Microsoft, and Amazon.
Cloud computing reached the public consciousness around the year 2007, when the Google Docs service went mainstream. Google provided a full, virtualized office suite that could be accessed – for free – from any internet-connected computer. In a world where an office software suite can cost hundreds of dollars, the appeal of such a service is obvious.
Many cloud applications targeted at individual consumers are free to use. However, there is also a growing category of paid cloud applications targeted at businesses. The benefit is to reduce your company’s IT budget by “outsourcing” your business-critical applications to the cloud. Data backup, security, development of new features, etc. become the responsibility of the application’s provider, rather than an internal IT department.
Another area of growth for cloud computing is customer relationship management. As the idea of “software as a service” becomes widespread, comparisons with other utilities become useful. Consider cell phone customers, who will gladly sign a service contract and pay a monthly fee, so long as they get the features they want. Think of the many ways in which businesses that provide cloud computing services can deepen and enrich their relationship with the customers.
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