Historical Origins of the Cloud
Hello all, I am currently trying to track down the historical origin of the term "cloud computing." So far, I have only come across speculation that the cloud imagery was used in computer textbooks and slowly adopted into the computing lexicon. Any suggested resources or guidance would be very much appreciated. Best, Trevor Croker PhD Candidate in the Science and Technology Studies Program at Virginia Tech
It was "grid computing" before this. And "Beowulf clusters" before that. I'll ask an Amazon-ite I know if he happens to know where the name "elastic compute cloud" came from for EC2. best, --e On Sat, Feb 23, 2013 at 4:32 PM, Trevor Croker <tcroker@vt.edu> wrote:
Hello all,
I am currently trying to track down the historical origin of the term "cloud computing." So far, I have only come across speculation that the cloud imagery was used in computer textbooks and slowly adopted into the computing lexicon.
Any suggested resources or guidance would be very much appreciated.
Best, Trevor Croker PhD Candidate in the Science and Technology Studies Program at Virginia Tech _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
My query:
Happen to know the history of where the nomenclature for EC2 came from? A guy on AIR-L (internet research list) was asking for historical info about where the 'cloud' terminology came from. Just wondered - and figured you might know who should be getting asked. :-)
My source's response:
It's not so interesting ;) -- it actually started as "utility computing", and it just kind of got named "cloud" because of you know, the visio thing.
So basically, some dude just coined it and I guess it stuck. I would ask Chris Pinkham for the official answer, if you wanted to know who to reach out to.
Hope this helps. It at least validates that you're on a good track and should persevere. (Chris Pinkham is CEO at Nimbula.com, nowadays...) --e On Sat, Feb 23, 2013 at 4:45 PM, Elijah Wright <elijah.wright@gmail.com>wrote:
It was "grid computing" before this. And "Beowulf clusters" before that.
I'll ask an Amazon-ite I know if he happens to know where the name "elastic compute cloud" came from for EC2.
best,
--e
On Sat, Feb 23, 2013 at 4:32 PM, Trevor Croker <tcroker@vt.edu> wrote:
Hello all,
I am currently trying to track down the historical origin of the term "cloud computing." So far, I have only come across speculation that the cloud imagery was used in computer textbooks and slowly adopted into the computing lexicon.
Any suggested resources or guidance would be very much appreciated.
Best, Trevor Croker PhD Candidate in the Science and Technology Studies Program at Virginia Tech _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
Trevor,
From the early days of what Cisco called Internetwork Design, it's always been necessary to focus on a particular network or group of networks, abstracting the large groups of other networks and the backbone connecting networks. In some science disciplines, this kind of intermediate process/infrastructure abstraction has humorously been referenced with cartoons: "...and then magic happens", etc.
The graphic tool of choice for network designers has been Visio, since long before Microsoft bought it and incorporated it into the Office suite. Visio always had some sort of cloud icon along with all the routers, switches and servers, and the joke was that every good network diagram had to have a cloud in it somewhere... Eventually, the cloud icon was mostly used to represent the "capital I" Internet, as that thing that our network design cannot control but which our traffic has to traverse. I thought it was funny when, in an effort to update many of the older line-art Visio icons, the artists gave us a dark grey cloud, apparently swollen with rain and threatening to ruin our picnic. Not inappropriate, from a security guy's perspective :) Steve Lovaas Colorado State University Sent from my iPhone On Feb 23, 2013, at 3:32 PM, "Trevor Croker" <tcroker@vt.edu> wrote:
Hello all,
I am currently trying to track down the historical origin of the term "cloud computing." So far, I have only come across speculation that the cloud imagery was used in computer textbooks and slowly adopted into the computing lexicon.
Any suggested resources or guidance would be very much appreciated.
Best, Trevor Croker PhD Candidate in the Science and Technology Studies Program at Virginia Tech _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
participants (3)
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Elijah Wright -
Lovaas,Steven -
Trevor Croker