History of Cloud Computing - Executive Summary

The cloud offers businesses increased agility, lower start-up costs, lower operation costs, better use of resources and a greatly lessened capital expenditure. But how did we get from putting software CDs into a physical disk tray to being able to use applications within seconds of learning their existence?

Cloud computing began further back than most people think. The concept began with ARPANET in 1969, which was the precursor to what we know today as the internet.

Originally meant to link computers together over great distance for a mixture of scientific and military purposes (no-one can agree on which, and it was most likely a bit of both), this technology sprang off the back of Mainframe Computing, which was developed in the 1950s.

Advancements of the internet

Various technological advances allowed mainframe computing and the internet to expand in power and scope until the invention and appearance of what we would recognise as the ‘baby version’ of our modern internet.

The mid-1990s saw the advancement of the internet being connected to huge numbers of personal computers, rather than just business ones. Both computers and a wired internet connection became cheaper and cheaper until the average home could have one without financial difficulty.

Arrival of Software-as-a-service

The end of the century in 1999 brought with it Salesforce.com which was the first company to offer businesses applications over the internet and heralded the arrival of Software-as-a-service – soon to become commonly known as SaaS.

With the arrival of greatly expanded web capability in 2003 (known in the industry as Web 2.0), videos, music and other multimedia could be hosted and delivered online which resulted in greatly increased popularity – as well as massively expanded horizons in terms of what web designers could achieve.

'The Cloud'

By 2006, ‘the Cloud’ began to be talked about openly. Despite being first mentioned in a 1996 research paper, Google CEO Erich Schmidt brought it to public attention in terms of its nickname and all of the possibilities that come with the cloud.

Google continued to bring cloud computing into common usage with the release of Google Apps in 2009. Microsoft was not far behind, and before long an internet arms race began that has to this day never slowed or cooled down. Fortunately, it has always functioned to push forward cloud technology at an accelerated pace as a direct result of this competition between tech goliaths.

The end of 2009 saw cloud computing begin to dominate a very specific niche – the start-up and enterprise market. This quickly saw an expansion into the corporate market and was part of the meteoric rise of Amazon in this area as they swiftly gained a number of high-profile clients. Among these were Netflix, the Obama for America team and NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover.

Expansion to modern times

Modern times have seen the dramatic expansion of PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service), SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) and IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service) – as well as the cyber-security industry which has been expanding rapidly to cope with increasing threats from hackers and cyber-criminals.

Cloud services like YouTube and Google have had huge impacts on the social aspects of our daily lives.  Services such as Twitter and Facebook have changed everything from ordering goods to interacting with our appointed representatives in government. Scientific research and healthcare have also become far more efficient.

However, the domination of large corporate bodies is waning in recent years, with more small-scale, specialised start-ups beginning to wrestle away control in some areas. These companies reap the benefits of their small size due to increased focus and agility, meaning that they can offer far more boutique solutions to specific problems, and therefore give customers more flexibility over the rigid packaged offers of larger industry names.

A total transformation

In short, Cloud Computing began from several small, rather separate technologies, which came together over time to form mainframe servers, then a connected internet of computers, then the World Wide Web until it morphed into what we would recognise as the cloud today. It is predicted that within a decade, every business will be using the cloud for its software needs, as well as specialised virtual machines for their hardware requirements.

The cloud is removing the knowledge barriers for hosting, as well as allowing people to pursue developments and ideas cheaper, faster and easier than ever before. From humble beginnings, the cloud has totally transformed how we do everything and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

 

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