Way back when in 1969, an American psychologist, J C R Lickliter, affectionately known as “Lick”, had a vision of a global Intergalactic Computer Network. He foresaw that everybody on the planet would be connected by way of computers. People would be able to access information from anywhere and at any time. What a far-fetched thought at the time. Little did “Lick” know that the Intergalactic Computer Network would become what we now call the Internet.
You Need the Internet for the Cloud
The Internet is an obvious prerequisite to access the cloud. Whether it is a business IT support company in London providing managed IT services, somebody sharing a post on Instagram, or two people on a WhatsApp chat, you need the internet to access and share information on the cloud.
Cloud Computing launches
The cloud-first gained some degree of popularity in 1999 when Salesforce, a San Francisco-based cloud software company, pioneered the concept of using the Internet to provide software applications to end-users. In 2002, Amazon came along with its web-based retail offering which, as of 2018, has an annual turnover of more than $230 billion.
2006 saw the arrival of Amazon Web Services aka AWS. One of the products offered by AWS was Elastic Compute Cloud or EC2. With EC2, people could rent virtual computers while using their own computer software. Also, in 2006, Google launched Google Docs and a year later we have Netflix, the ideal cloud-based platform for binge-watching TV and movies.
The Cloud for Business IT
Adding to cloud-provision in a business context, IBM introduced IBM SmartCloud in 2011. Also, in 2011, Microsoft started promoting the cloud on TV and people began to see the power of the technology for easy storage and access. Following in Microsoft’s footsteps, Apple launched iCloud.
In 2012, Oracle released Oracle Cloud onto the market. This encompasses three fundamental services: IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service), PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service) and SaaS (Software-as-a-Service).
Next Time
Public and Private Cloud – a quick comparison between the two. Also, you’ll look at the importance of security in business IT cloud computing.
