Technology Cloud Computing Apr 2026

The story of cloud computing is the evolution from owning, heavy, on-premise hardware to renting flexible, on-demand digital infrastructure. It is a tale of shifting from "doing it all yourself" to leveraging a utility model, similar to how factories moved from private power generators to the public electricity grid.

In 1972, IBM developed the first virtual machine, a key technology that allows multiple operating systems to share the same hardware, which is fundamental to modern cloud operations. Chapter 2: The Infrastructure (1990s–2000s) technology cloud computing

In 1999, Salesforce pioneered Software as a Service (SaaS) by delivering enterprise applications via a website, moving beyond local software installations. The story of cloud computing is the evolution