Cloud computing might seem like a modern development in IT, but it’s much older than you may expect. The cloud has an interesting history. The phrase “cloud computing” was first used in a Compaq internal document in 1996.
The term “cloud” was first associated with the concept of distributed computing, which gained popularity in the early 1990s at Apple-founded General Magic, with earlier usage in academic work.
In this post, we will explore the history of the cloud, its origins, and its future.
What is the Cloud?
The cloud is a network of virtual servers that deliver IT resources over the internet on demand. Instead of installing an on-site server and data center and spending on advanced hardware or software, you can use cloud services. You can store your data and access it from anywhere only with robust network connectivity and require no hard drives for local data storage while using a cloud computing platform.
In the cloud, you know your data is on dedicated virtual servers, but you cannot pinpoint the exact data center. As the cloud services are location-independent and deliver IT resources remotely over virtual spaces, the term Cloud Computing came into use as a metaphor for the internet.
Cloud computing underpins a wide range of IT resources and services. The use of various cloud solutions is skyrocketing recently, and we sometimes fail to understand how these services modernise our work processes. For instance, from the pictures stored in your smartphone gallery to your Gmail inbox, the chances are, everything is getting stored in a cloud environment.
Businesses are rapidly turning to the cloud environment for automating their operations and running more efficiently, ensuring better content delivery. Even today’s market-leading software vendors are migrating to cloud computing to offer their web applications as services and enable users to opt for subscription-based models instead of paying for the whole product.
Cloud History
Though the term Cloud has been in use for a decade, the history behind this revolutionary technology stretches back over the last seventy years. Let’s look over a quick overview of cloud history and the pioneers behind this flourishing technology.
The Origin of Cloud Computing: Mainframes and Terminals
By the 1950s-1960s, mainframe: a multi-user-based powerful computing system that enabled operators to interact with the interconnected computers via terminals, came into use for handling business data processing. These expensive and large machines were far from the operators, connected by a network, and offered no processing power to users. Only a few large organisations and educational institutes could afford them, using time-sharing technology to boost their ROI.
Mainframe computers that used time-shared ‘physical servers’ without human interaction are the foundation of the cloud system.
The Time-Sharing Theory and the Invention of AI
As business needs evolved, the demand for shared IT resources grew. But there was limited technological progress until 1955. In 1961, the pioneer of today’s advanced cloud infrastructure, John McCarthy, neologised the word Artificial Intelligence in one of his speeches at MIT. He proposed that computing resources would be organised as a public utility service someday for better business feasibility. This revolutionary concept stands on his Time-sharing theory described in 1955.
In this proposal, he emphasized on:
Organising IT resources like networking, data storage capacity, processing power, etc., as services.
These resources should be shared virtually among multiple users for maximum usability and cost-efficiency.
The Giant Step Towards The Cloud
Cloud history can be traced back as far as the early 1960s. By the end of 1960, software engineer J.C.R. Licklider demonstrated his Intergalactic Computer Network theory. In it, he envisioned connecting everyone on the earth through computing systems virtually via a network regardless of where the connecting processors were placed.
This Intergalactic Computer Network is what we call the internet today and the prerequisite to using the cloud environment.
This revolutionary theory fueled the invention of APPARENT. In 1969, Larry Robert and Bob Taylor developed APPARENT, a network that was the ancestor of today’s internet. It allowed users to share computing resources and interact from distant locations.
The Development of Virtual Machine
The concept of virtualisation, developed in 1963 to connect users, began changing by 1970. As the technology evolved, this cornerstone of modern cloud computing shifted to today’s virtualisation technology. Virtualisation enables users to deploy a fully functional operating system for running many virtual servers on a single physical server simultaneously without causing any interaction among the VMs.
One of the market-leading tech companies, IBM, developed the first-ever virtual machine (VM): an interpretation of real computers, by 1970, which became popular among enterprises and led us to today’s modern cloud infrastructure.
By the 1990s, many telecom businesses started establishing and leasing their virtual private network (VPN). And cloud technology started thriving by 1996, offering users from educational, financial, or mission-critical institutions more secured access to virtual IT resources.
Advanced Cloud Technology
The vision of J.C.R Licklider to deliver computing resources as services for mass use came true when Salesforce.com started using websites to deliver web apps to its users.
In 2002, the tech giant Amazon launched AWS for offering cloud resources like processing power, data/application storage, etc., to a limited number of authorised users. The company led to a boom in the cloud market in 2006 when it made its IaaS-based EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) available for public use. This was a major step towards the modern cloud. It allows users to access Amazon EC2 from any device with a compatible web browser.
As we delve into the evolution of cloud computing in our article, it becomes evident how innovations like AWS dedicated instances and dedicated hosts have significantly shaped the landscape, offering tailored solutions for diverse computing needs.
After Amazon’s first public cloud solution, companies like Google and Apple began building large data centers for cloud infrastructure.
Ten years later, tools like Kubernetes for managing containers became popular. It lets users run multiple programs on a single VM or server using the same operating system. With this widely used virtualisation technology, there was a sharp rise in the deployment of hybrid clouds, allowing users to move workloads and improve data protection.
The Present State of The Cloud Infrastructure
Today, cloud computing has become an indispensable part of many modern businesses that boost productivity by allowing users to leverage the power of public and private cloud systems simultaneously.
Research by Denodo found that 36% of businesses use hybrid cloud for workloads, while 24% use a private system.
Flexera found that 6 out of 10 enterprises moved workloads to cloud solutions in 2020, with 46% reporting savings on operating expenses. Flexera also reported that in 2020, about 81% of global companies used at least one cloud-based program.
While 93% of businesses worldwide had deployed a multi-cloud system, 83% implemented hybrid cloud solutions in 2020. This percentage is exponentially increasing as the Coronavirus pandemic has stricken, requiring businesses to offer their staff a more flexible and remote working environment.
To complement this historical perspective, delve into our piece on the evolution and role of computing platforms, which sheds light on the foundational structures that have enabled the growth of cloud computing.
The Future Trends in Cloud Computing
In our journey through Cloud History, we explore the origins and evolution of cloud technology. To further understand the dynamics of this technology, particularly in terms of ownership and control, delve into our insightful article on Who Owns the Cloud?, which examines the key players and their influence in the cloud computing industry.
In 2020, the global cloud industry was worth 274.79 billion dollars, and this market value is expected to increase at a CAGR rate (compound annual growth rate) of 19.1% between 2021 and 2028.
How will the modern cloud environment shape our lives in the future?
Let’s look over some prominent predicted future trends in cloud technology that will enable businesses to run more smoothly:
Serverless Architecture
In today’s modern cloud computing environment, you need to invest time and money in designing and deploying programs for optimal system failover or scaling.
With technological advancement, the cloud environment is rapidly shifting to a serverless architecture where developers can build and implement applications promptly.
What is more interesting is, this serverless architecture would measure and provision the required infrastructure dynamically for quick deployment of web apps and systems.
Increase in Storage Capacity
As businesses generate both structured and unstructured data in massive amounts, they need a more secure place for data storage. The surge in the use of cloud platforms will continue in future years. Thus, it is predicted that cloud providers will spend on installing more data centers worldwide and lease them at an affordable rate to the users to survive in the intensifying business competition. So paying less, users will have more storage capacity to store their business data more securely.
AI will be the Centre of the Cloud System
How cloud computing is evolving lately forecasts that advanced Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, and IoT will be the driving forces of future cloud platforms.
Enterprises of all sizes will be more interested in AI-driven cloud solutions for better agility, efficiency, and extracting strategic insights that will result in enhanced ROI. AI-driven cloud solutions will enable businesses to regulate and control workflows more efficiently, transform digitally through driving innovation leveraging the power of big data analytics, augmented reality, chatbots, and more, even using smartphones.
Benefits of Cloud Computing
Some tremendous benefits coming with cloud computing solutions include:
- With the cloud, you can opt for a sophisticated IT infrastructure maintained, controlled, and upgraded by third-party providers saving substantial capital and operational expenses.
- Software integration and update is what comes with your cloud subscription by default. So you do not have to take on the hassle of periodically customising, configuring, or updating programs and software.
- Another advantage of cloud solutions is that they offer scalable services. So, you can upscale or downscale your IT resource usage with your fluctuating business demands and pay for what you use only.
- Though security is the prime concern of many businesses before migrating to the cloud, cloud platforms encrypt your system with layers of protection like firewalls, real-time traffic, and network monitoring, etc., and ensure your business complies with standard regulations better. A study run by RapidScale says 91% of the assessed enterprises reported that cloud computing had made it easier to meet regulatory compliance better.
The cloud’s rich history has led to the technology we use today, and it shows no signs of disappearing.
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