The Evolution of the Cloud
Adopting a cloud first strategy has significantly accelerated over the last few years, but where did the cloud originate from? We’ve analysed the journey of the cloud to show the impact it has had on organisations and users since it was first used back in the 1960s by Joseph Carl Robert Licklider.
Tech Spotlight
The Evolution of the Cloud
In the 1960s, to connect people and data from anywhere at any time cloud computing was established by Joseph Carl Robert Licklider. Fast forward to 2021 and the worldwide public cloud end-user spending is up to $304.9 billion. So, when did the cloud really take off? Take a look at the GIF below to find out.
1962
As an internet pioneer Licklider had a vision of a worldwide computer network long before it was built. He formulated the earliest ideas of a global computer network. In a series of memos discussing the “Intergalactic Computer Network” concept. These ideas contained almost everything that the Internet is today, including cloud computing.
1970
Visualisation changed everything, IBM released an operating system called VM that permitted admins its mainframe systems to have multiple virtual systems. This system allowed multiple distinct compute environments to live in the same physical environment.
1983
CompuServe offered its consumer users a small amount of disk space that could be used to store any files they chose to upload.
1989
Sir Tim Berners Lee laid out his vision for what would become the web. The documents described a ‘hypertext project’ called ‘WorldWideWeb’ in which a ‘web’ of ‘hypertext documents’ could be viewed by ‘browsers’.
1994
AT&T launched PersonaLink Services, an online platform for personal and business communication and entrepreneurship. The storage was one of the first to be all web-based, and referenced in their “You Will” commercials.
1997
Professor Ramnath Chellapa of Emory University defined Cloud Computing as the new ‘computing paradigm, where the boundaries of computing will be determined by economic rationale, rather than technical limits alone’.
2002
Amazon Introduced its web-based retail services implementing the Cloud Computing Infrastructure Model to give them flexibility to use their computer’s capacity much more efficiently.
2006
Amazon launched Amazon Web Services, offering online services to other websites, or clients. They provided a variety of Cloud-based services including storage, computation and ‘human intelligence’. Elastic Computer Cloud (EC2) was a site that allowed individuals to rent virtual computers and use their own programs and applications.
2007
IBM, Google and several universities joined forces to develop a server farm for research projects needing both fast processors and huge data sets. In the same year, Netflix launched it’s streaming video service, using the Cloud, and provided support for the practice of ‘Binge-watching’.
2008
ANASA’s OpenNebula provided the first open-source software for deploying Private and Hybrid Clouds. This innovative software focused on the needs of major businesses.
2011
IBM introduced the IBM SmartCloud framework. Apple launched the ICloud which focused on storing more personal information. In the same year, Microsoft launched the first major advertising campaign on television, to raise awareness of it’s ability to store photos or video with easy access via the cloud.
2012
Oracle introduced the Oracle Cloud, offering three fundamental cloud services known as Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS).
2014
The emergence of security, cloud security had become a fast-growing service, because of its importance to organisations. Features such as protection to traditional IT security systems and protection of critical information from accidental deletion, data leakage and theft where commonly used.
2015
Global Cloud IT market revenue had reached $180 Billion. Microsoft Azure’s total revenue had reached $880 million.
2017
Demand for cloud services grew by 18% in 2017 with a worldwide revenue of 246.8 billion, the rapid development of cloud computing market trends took everyone by surprise.
2018
There were 3.6 billion cloud users worldwide.
2019
96% of companies started investing in public and private clouds. 67% of enterprise infrastructure was cloud-based. As a result, more than 40 zettabytes of data will be flowing through cloud servers and networks.
The cloud will provide the digital infrastructure for tomorrow’s cities, with a safer and better managed solution thanks to the cloud’s ability to store and analyse data. Regardless of industry or size, all companies need digital infrastructure to support their business operations. But cloud will change ICT from a support system into a production system.
Useful Links:
History of the web
https://home.cern/science/computing/birth-web/short-history-web
Gartner forecasting worldwide cloud spend
Cloud computing history
https://www.dataversity.net/brief-history-cloud-computing/
The evolution of cloud computing
https://itchronicles.com/cloud/the-evolution-of-cloud-computing-wheres-it-going-next/
Cloud infrastructure data
https://www.statista.com/statistics/477277/cloud-infrastructure-services-market-share/
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