Cloud computing is not an abrupt innovation. Rather, it is a series of developments that have taken place over past few decades. Progresses in computing technology, starting from its early days, has slowly metamorphosed into cloud computing in this advanced era. Although the idea of cloud computing originated long ago, the concept could not materialize due to lack of necessary technological elements.
Documentary evidence can be traced back to the 1960s, when John McCarthy (who coined the term ‘artificial intelligence’) wrote that ‘computation may someday be organized as a public utility.’ Since then, computing technology has gone through phases of development. Hardware and communication technology have been progressed, Internet has changed the world and at the same time, the web-based software architecture has also matured.
As advancements in all associated fields have slowly overcome the limitations of earlier approaches, it has been possible to realize the dream of computing as the new measure of public utility. This chapter focusses on the evolution of cloud computing and discusses how generations have developed through stages like centralized computing, client server computing, distributed computing and grid computing on to cloud computing.
THE EVOLUTION OF CLOUD COMPUTING
Cloud computing is not an isolated development. Cloud technology has been matured over the years with constant advancements in the field of computing. The beginning can be traced back to a time when remote access to time-shared computing system became a reality. The realization of cloud computing has been closely linked with several other subsequent developments in the domain.
Several decades of research, particularly in the domain of parallel and distributed computing, have paved the way for cloud computing.
A thorough discussion about the development of cloud computing can never overlook the continuous innovations in the field of electronic and computing hardware. As the hardware technology evolved, so did the software. Beside these, with the advancements in communication protocols, network communication technology as well as Internet also played a vital role in this process. This section focusses on different phases of developments in the field of computing starting from the mainframe age and discusses how those progresses have contributed towards the growth of cloud computing.
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