History

While the widespread usage of cloud technology is relatively new, it was originally thought of and described in the 1960s by John McCarthy who dreamed that “computation may someday be organized as a public utility” (Gilmer, 2011). Today, nearly all aspects of cloud computing fit this idea. The unlimited utility that it offers users today is something that McCarthy would have thought a fantasy 50 years ago. The first real step toward cloud computing as we know and understand it today was mad by Amazon.com in the early 2000s (King, 2009). They modernized their data centers in order to be more efficient. They found that a cloud style of computing was most efficient and could be added to more quickly. It was from this that Amazon developed their Web Services branch which was launched in 2006.

            In 2008, Eucalyptus was the first open source platform for deploying clouds. Many other companies followed suit, and cloud computing began to be thought of as a revolution in computing (King, 2009). In 2011, IBM, a major computer and software manufacturer, announced the Smarter Computing framework, of which cloud computing was a significant part. Finally, in 2012, Drs. Biju John and Souheil Khaddaj describe the cloud as a universal collection of data that extends over the entire internet. This is the first time that an official within the field describes the cloud as something other than a service offered by third party companies. This is the way that the cloud is today (Gilmer, 2011). This is only a brief history. As the use and popularity of cloud technology is relatively young, more information is coming out constantly as to new advances and new usages.