Why ‘cloud computing’ is called ‘cloud computing’
March 13, 2015
Grazed from BusinessInsider. Author: Matt Weinberger.
What the heck is "the cloud"? Like "non-GMO," "part of a complete breakfast,"and "Intel Inside" before it, marketers have convinced us that "the cloud" is something we should want without ever really truly knowing why. When Microsoft airs TV commercials touting its range of cloud services and how it helps research teams work on cures for cancer, it hopes we’re nodding knowingly.
So, where does the phrase come from? Let’s back up. Rewind to the early nineties: Computer scientists and engineers needed some way in their diagrams and slideshows to refer to "the network," that big grouping of computers and storage devices out there somewhere. In other words, they needed some way to refer to something that was, essentially, somebody else’s problem…
They settled on a cloud. You can see one of the earliest uses of that idea in this diagram from US Patent 5,485,455, "Network having secure fast packet switching and guaranteed quality of service," filed in the January of 1994…
Read more from the source @ http://www.businessinsider.com/why-do-we-call-it-the-cloud-2015-3#ixzz3UHGpaKZb