Prior to the internet, document storage and data collection was a cumbersome, costly and time-inefficient process. While at the time it wouldn’t have felt like this, as there was no genuine alternative, the incredible advances in cloud computing have essentially made many of these old methods entirely redundant.
The omnipresence of cloud computing technology
Cloud computing has evolved to such sophisticated levels that it now acts as the platform for the bulk of all internet-based security. Your smartphone, tablet, laptop or PC will all utilize cloud storage. Apple, Microsoft, and, more recently, Nvidia have invested billions in developing cloud computing for their own designs. However, it’s not just the world of data storage where cloud computing has encountered such remarkable success; it’s become a focal point for analytics, internal security systems within large companies and even casino gaming.
By utilizing the immense potential of cloud computing, casino companies can store large amounts of customer data, and analyze gambling patterns to provide a more streamlined service.
Although the gambling industry is just one example of how cloud computing technology has alleviated traditional issues with mass storage, it’s also helped to expedite analyzing customer behavior, and this intersection has been perfect for the casino industry. Without getting too bogged down in the specifics, this is just one tiny piece of the puzzle. Although cloud computing is used in other areas of gaming, not just slots, roulette or placing a sports wager, this should give you some insight into how it’s gone from a niche area of computer science to becoming an irreplaceable piece of technology in all our lives.
Humble origins
The concept of cloud computing has been around for over half a century — it’s not just something that has emerged with the internet. However, the internet has helped to facilitate and spearhead some of the most important developments, especially over the last 15 years. An American scientist named JCR Licklider was one of the first computer scientists to connect a network of computers, essentially one of the most primitive forms of the internet ever devised.
While IBM might be a multibillion-dollar conglomerate now, back in the 1970s, it was on the fringes of the futuristic and growing computer technology industry. Few people understood the true potential of computers 50 years ago, but Licklider and a core group of computer scientists throughout North America, Europe and Asia helped unlock that potential.
Once IBM built on JCR Licklider’s findings and research and began to attract truly corporate levels of investment, evolution snowballed quickly — much like what we’ve seen happen in the world of AI over the last two years. Nvidia went from a promising name in technology to surpassing Google in little under 18 months and is perhaps a modern-day example of what cloud computing started to experience following a raft of innovative developments and findings throughout the 1980s and early 1990s.
The computing golden age
Propped up by the enormous success of the internet and the relatively swift mass adoption that occurred between the decade-long period of 1995 to 2005, cloud computing provided reliable and highly secure ways for these networks to have many real-world applications.
Amazon Web Service (AWS) was such a groundbreaking development during this golden age that it inspired trillion-dollar companies to get involved. Google quickly followed with its Google Doc cloud storage system, allowing users to write, edit and send Word documents without storing them on floppy discs or memory sticks.
From this point onwards, the floodgates opened, from Netflix launching their streaming service in 2007 using cloud storage to Apple using iCloud as a one-stop shop to store all your e-mails, notes, photos and videos on your mobile device. Apple helped to bring cloud computing to the masses. It wasn’t just because iCloud conveniently has the word in its title and e-mail suffix, but the ability to store and access your mobile device photos and videos from anywhere, requiring just your e-mail and password to access your cloud storage has made it incredibly popular.
Final thoughts
Cloud computing continues to fuel this golden age. Now, with AI fusing with cloud computing, the horizon continues to expand the possibilities and somehow explore even bolder and more remarkable dimensions. Trillions of dollars will flow into cloud computing over the next decade. Considering where it all started back in the 1960s to how commonplace it has now become, evolution isn’t even the right word anymore, perhaps the cloud computing revolution is a more apt term.