Cloud computing is a popular buzz-phrase on the internet, with a Google search revealing 103 million occurrences of the term. Cloud computing refers to delivering on-demand computing services, originally storage, and now more recently processing power and apps, over the internet, with companies using this on a pay-as-you-go basis. The 'cloud' in cloud computing has its origins in network diagrams that draw the internet as a fluffy cloud.
Despite the modern popularity of cloud computing, the notion of computing over a network goes some decades back to 1961. An MIT professor, John McCarthy, considered a ‘founding father’ of artificial intelligence, in an address at their centennial celebration prophetically spoke: “Computing may someday be organized as a public utility just as the telephone system is a public utility.
