Cloud Computing refers to a term in computer science that is used to describe the advances in client-server technology that has occured in the last decade. The technology is divided into three catergories: Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). The name ‘Cloud Computing’ was used to describe this because the cloud symbol is often used to represent the internet in flow charts and diagrams.
The concept of cloud computing was engineered in the 1960′s when John McCarthy stated that computation may become public. In 1999, Loudcloud became the first company to attempt to commercialize cloud computing with an infrastructure as a service model. The company Amazon would prove to be vital in the emergence of cloud computing because they were the first large company to modernize their system and make it far more efficient by converting to cloud computing. The Cloud Computing that Amazon utilized was SaaS, which can be used for anything from email, to inventory control and database processing.
Cloud Computing is not without its problems though. One expert in the field, Richard Stallman, claims that Cloud Computing “will force people to buy into locked, proprietary systems that will cost more and more over time”. Whatever the issues with Cloud Computing, it is clear that it provides a great advancement in internet technology and is a means for providing much more efficient and safe servers for the public and private use.
