How Did Cloud Computing Start?

At a basic level, cloud computing is simply a means of delivering IT resources as services. Almost all IT resources can be delivered as a cloud service: applications, compute power, storage capacity, networking, programming tools, even communications services and collaboration tools.

Cloud computing began as large-scale Internet service providers such as Google, Amazon, and others built out their infrastructure. Architecture emerged: massively scaled, horizontally distributed system resources, abstracted as virtual IT services and managed as continuously configured, pooled resources. This architectural model was immortalized by George Gilder in his October 2006 Wired magazine article titled “The Information Factories.” The server farms Gilder wrote about were architecturally similar to grid computing, but where grids are used for loosely coupled, technical computing applications, this new cloud model was being applied to Internet services.

Both clouds and grids are built to scale horizontally very efficiently. Both are built to withstand failures of individual elements or nodes. Both are charged on a per-use basis. But while grids typically process batch jobs, with a defined start and end point, cloud services can be continuous. What’s more, clouds expand the types of resources available — file storage, databases, and Web services — and extend the applicability to Web and enterprise applications.

At the same time, the concept of utility computing became a focus of IT design and operations. As Nick Carr observed in his book The Big Switch, computing services infrastructure was beginning to parallel the development of electricity as a utility. Wouldn’t it be great if you could purchase compute resources, on demand, only paying for what you need, when you need it?
For end users, cloud computing means there are no hardware acquisition costs, no software licenses or upgrades to manage, no new employees or consultants to hire, no facilities to lease, no capital costs of any kind — and no hidden costs. Just a metered, per-use rate or a fixed subscription fee. Use only what you want, pay only for what you use.

Cloud computing actually takes the utility model to the next level. It’s a new and evolved form of utility computing in which many different types of resources (hardware, software, storage, communications, and so on) can be combined and recombined on the fly into the specific capabilities or services customers require. From CPU cycles for HPC projects to storage capacity for enterprise-grade backups to complete IDEs for software development, cloud computing can deliver virtually any IT capability, in real time. Under the circumstances it is easy to see that a broad range of organizations and individuals would like to purchase “computing” as a service, and those firms already building hyperscale distributed data centers would inevitably choose to begin offering this infrastructure as a service.