Cloudy matters: Where does the term "cloud" come from?

Although we are always at the cutting edge of IT technology, many terms used to describe digital innovations are older than we realise. For example, the term "meme" - a cartoon, video or similar file - has become very popular on the internet. However, the term "meme" was used to describe cultural trends as early as 1976.

Also "cloud computing" has a long history. The term was used as early as 1950 - completely independently of data that can be accessed independently of end devices.

The history of the cloud

Long before computer technology found its way into private households, the huge mainframes of the time were called "clouds". They were located in the processors and hard drives of the computer machines.

Then, in the 1990s, the idea of a new cloud emerged. The beginnings of the virtual private network made it possible to balance server capacities individually and connect several servers in a cloud. With Internet computing power, these "clouds" could now be made available. At the time, however, the ability to use computers without having them physically in front of you was often dismissed as superfluous. The idea of turning a mistake into a product is still part of the reservations against the cloud today.

In 1996, the idea of the cloud as we know it emerged. Back then, the managing director of an American computer manufacturer came up with the idea that it might be possible to move software to the internet.
The term cloud was also used repeatedly in other Internet-related contexts at this time. The company NetCentric even tried to patent the term. As did DELL a few years later.

Google & Amazon make the difference

The "cloud" only became as popular as it is today when Google and Amazon used the term for their marketing 10 years later. One example is Amazon's "Elastic Compute Cloud" from 2006, although Google leader Eric Schmidt had dropped the word "cloud computing" at a conference just a few weeks earlier. At the time, it was claimed that this was a deliberate move against Amazon.

The term "cloud" already has a lot of history behind it. It is sometimes used in a very ambiguous way to describe a wide variety of services and applications on the internet. This diversity is perhaps also the reason why it has not yet found a place in the dictionary. This cloud is a little nebulous.