Cloud Computing as a technology is big in the job market right now. It is one of the desired domains to move into for most tech professionals. We all know how Cloud Computing helps in storing and managing data for personal and business use. Experts say that by 2025, we would have generated around 163ZB of data – That’s more that one trillion gigabytes of data. With such volumes of data, we will need to store it in a place so that it can be accessed via the internet. The demand for Cloud Computing is exponentially rising year in and year out. So, let’s take a look at how the concept of Cloud Computing came into existence and what the future holds for Cloud Computing.
It all started in the ‘70s
To many, Cloud Computing is term that recently came about. That is not entirely true, let’s roll back a few decades. Back in the ‘70s the concept of Virtual Machines was created. Using virtualization, it became possible to use one or more operating systems in an isolated environment. The VM model took the Mainframe access model being used in the ‘50s to the next level. The fact that multiple distinct computing environment resided on one physical environment proved to be a game changer.
Virtualized private connection of the ‘90s
Up until the 90s, telecom companies were offering point-to-point data connections. The newly offered virtual private connections offered the same reliability as their predecessor but at a reduced cost. Instead of building more hardware lines to provide connectivity to more users, telecom companies were now able to provide users with shared access to the same physical infrastructure.
Back in those days we had Grid Computing which was able to solve large problems with parallel computing. We then moved on to having Utility Computing which offered resources as a metered service. Saas or Software as a service came in next. Then we moved on to Cloud Computing which offered anytime and anywhere access to IT resources delivered as a service.
The idea of intergalactic computer network was introduced in the sixties by J.C.R Licklider who was the brains behind the development of ARPANET in 1969. He envisioned an interconnected world where anyone could access a program or data from anywhere. This vision sounds a lot like what we call ‘Cloud Computing’ in today’s world.
Cloud Computing for masses was only made possible starting in the 90s when internet started offering substantial bandwidth. One of the first milestones of cloud computing was the introduction of salesforce.com in 1999, which delivered enterprise applications via a simple website. The next development was Amazon Web Services in 2002. Jeff Bezos led Amazon provided a suite of cloud-based services including storage, computation and even human intelligence through the Amazon Mechanical Turk.
The promising Present and Future
Around the year 2010, with internet speed and usage gaining stride, we saw the emergence of ‘killer apps’ from tech giants such as Microsoft and Google. When these companies deliver services in a way that is reliable and easy to consume, the knock-on effect to the industry as a whole is a wider general acceptance of online services.
The story does not finish here, evolution of Cloud Computing is still on-going. With technological advancements the Cloud space is only going to get bigger and better. It’s only natural to assume that Cloud based services will show an equally exponential growth. Many of these services are already extremely popular and software, infrastructure and platform as a service will continue to be big in the near future.
Cloud based storage systems are also predicted to grow bigger and become a lot cheaper. Cisco predicts that global storage capacity will increase from 600EB to 1.1ZB in 2018, that’s almost twice the available storage of 2017.
Cloud is the backbone of IoT as well. Cloud Computing allows a range of devices to maintain connectivity and communicate with each other. With increase market use of IoT based systems, cloud solutions will become more feasible and easily available for general uses.
With all that being said, it is apparent that cloud computing offers an array of solution that our present world requires. Learning Cloud Computing can help you leverage these technological advancements and make a lasting career in this space.
