From the Computer Utility to Cloud Computing - To the Cloud: Big Data in a Turbulent World - page 15

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C hapTer 2
F roM The C oMpuTer u TiliTy
To C loud C oMpuTing

We are on a shift that is as momentous and as fundamental as
the shift to the electrical grid. It's happening a lot faster than
any of us thought.
—Arthur R. Jassy, head of Amazon
Web Services (Hardy 2012a)

Most general accounts of cloud computing attribute the use of the cloud
image to its appearance in diagrams that identify key elements in a tele-
communications network. The term cloud computing emerged in 1996
when technology leaders with Compaq, then a major desktop-computer
company, met to discuss the future of computing and especially the Inter-
net. Speciically, they hoped that “cloud computing-enabled applications”
would boost sales. Although not entirely clear about this, they concluded
that online consumer ile storage would likely be among the successful
applications. Their prescience was rewarding for the company because it
contributed to Compaq's decision to start selling servers to Internet service
providers, which became a $2 billion annual business for the company.
However beneicial for Compaq, which HP bought in 2002, the server
decision was not as successful for one of the meeting's participants, Sean

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