The cloud: lessons from history

'The cloud' is the buzzword du jour, but where did the term come from, and what does it really mean?

The idea that computing would one day become a public utility, for example, has been around since the early 1960s. Similarly, worries that cloud services would put IT staff out of work carry an echo of fears about Computer Automated Operations in the 1980s, at the beginning of the microprocessor revolution.

As ever, a small number of big companies are manoeuvering to dominate the cloud-services market, using the well-worn approach of attempting to lock customers into their platforms. But what distinguishes today's 'cloud' from yesterday's 'grid computing' or Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is the open standards-based web and the flexibility afforded by modern virtualisation technology.

Rupert Goodwins, editor of ZDNet UK, and Charles McLellan, Reviews Editor, discuss these issues in this video. How will they pan out? Tune into the next episode — The future of the cloud — to find out.