The History of Cloud Computing & Amazon Web Services

Cloud Computing refers to delivery of hardware and software as a service (SAAS) over an online network and its growth in recent years can be attributed to the growing need for improving internal efficiency of organizations and their resources. The term cloud basically refers to delivery of hardware and software as a service via an online network and has been used for several years to depict sharing of systems or networks. Amazon Inc has played a key role in the development of cloud computing by offering cloud services to external customers and launching Amazon Web Services (AWS) on a utility computing basis. Let’s trace the history of this term and the role of Amazon in its development.

The Evolution of Cloud Computing and Amazon’s Cloud Computing Services

The concept of using a cloud to depict networks of computing and communication systems can be traced back to as early as the 1950’s, but the concept is now being used by businesses all across the globe. Although the term “cloud computing” was first used by Ramnath Chellappa, an information systems professor at the Emory University and the University of South California, the concept was being used much earlier.

As the demand and popularity of computers grew, so did the need for sharing of computing systems from multiple terminals as well as sharing of the CPU time. As part of their efforts to eliminate the periods of inactivity, several communication companies started offering virtual private network or VPN services by switching traffic to balance the utilization of various machines over a particular network. Cloud computing displays the servers and the network infrastructure being supplied and the various clients using them.

While salesforce.com became the one of first companies to make a major move in the cloud segment in 1999 by pioneering the concept of delivering enterprise level applications to end users through the internet, Amazon brought a revolution with the introduction of its web based retail services in 2002. Amazon’s webs based retail services aimed at utilizing its excess computer infrastructure allowed it to outlast the dot com bubble. The company not only modernized its data centers but also took steps to use their existing capacity with greater efficiency.

Realizing the advantages that sharing of computing power can generate, Amazon Inc started offering computer access to external clients through its web services division. The company’s cloud computing platform has encouraged more and more companies to opt for renting data storage and computer server time rather than buying their own computers.

Starting with about three dozen employees in 2006, the AWS or Amazon web services has expanded significantly to employ thousands of people. The company through its giant computer regional centers in the US in Virginia, Oregon and California house thousands of servers that meet the computing requirements of thousands of customers- both individuals and organisations. The low cost of computing along increased efficiency and utilization of machines has driven Amazon’s cloud computing business. The company remains one of the top players in the segment on the strength of its wide range of services targeting enterprise IT. Amazon’s low cost infrastructure cloud platform powers hundreds of thousands of businesses in 190 countries across the globe.