Cloud Computing - History

Client/Server computing, which is essentially a centralized storage in which all software applications, all data, and all controls are resided on the server side, existed before the cloud computing. A single user must connect to the server and obtain the necessary access before being able to access a particular piece of data or run a program. Distributed computing then entered the scene, in which all computers are networked together and share resources as required.

Based on the above-mentioned computing, cloud computing principles were developed and later put into practice.

J.C.R. Licklider (1960s) - American psychologist and computer scientist J.C.R. Licklider has been linked with developing the concept of a galactic network. He imagined a vast network of computers that would let users to access data and programs from a distance in the early 1960s. His concepts cleared the way for distributed computing, which was a forerunner to cloud computing.

Here's a brief history of cloud computing.

1. Mainframe Computing(1950s - 1960s) - The concept of cloud computing can be traced back to the era of mainframe computing. During this time, large, centralized computers were used by organizations for data processing. Users accessed these machines via dumb terminals.

2. ARPANET and Early Networking(1960s - 1970s) - The development of ARPANET (the precursor to the internet) laid the foundation for remote access to computing resources. Researchers began experimenting with the idea of distributed computing.

3. Internet and Web-Based Services(1990s) - Web-based services and applications were developed in the 1990s when the internet began to be commercialized. The Software as a Service (SaaS) model was invented by companies like Salesforce and Hotmail.

4. Utility Computing and Grid Computing(Early 2000s) - The idea of computer resources being made available as needed, much like utilities like electricity, gave rise to concepts like utility computing and grid computing.

5. Amazon Web Services (AWS)(2006) - Amazonstarted Amazon Web Services, providing services like storage, computation and even human intelligence. However, only starting with the launch of the Elastic Compute Cloud in 2006 a truly commercial service open to everybody existed. AWS offered scalable and flexible infrastructure services, such as EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) and S3 (Simple Storage Service).

6. Google App Engine and Microsoft Azure(2008) - Google Appsalso started to provide cloud computing enterprise applications. Google App Engine and Microsoft Azure entered the market, further expanding the range of cloud services available to developers and organizations.

7. Rapid Growth and Diversification(2010) - The 2010s saw tremendous growth in cloud computing. Companies like Google, Microsoft, and IBM heavily invested in their cloud platforms. The adoption of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Containerization (e.g., Docker) became common.

8. Serverless Computing(2015) - AWS Lambda introduced serverless computing, a paradigm where developers write code that runs in response to events without managing the underlying infrastructure.

9. Continued Expansion and Maturity(2020) - Cloud computing continued to evolve, with a focus on edge computing, AI/ML services, and enhanced security measures. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the shift to the cloud as remote work and digital transformation became paramount.