The Evolution of the Cloud Revolution – Part 1 and 2

by Joel Campbell and Amy Zeller Directions Magazine

Technology Maturation Created the Cloud
When the computing age took off in the 1960s, powerful mainframe computers ran bulk data processes inside large organizations. At that same time, several companies realized they could take advantage of these large-scale systems by selling chunks of processing time to smaller companies that could not otherwise afford such a computer system on their own. Thus was born the concept of “time-sharing” services. …….. (which didn’t  last )   …..

The emergence of the PC in the 1980s gave rise to the independent, fully-detached computer system. However, the explosion of the Internet in the 1990s was the catalyst for individuals and organizations becoming interconnected. This re-defeated the idea of system isolation, as it ushered back in the notion of shared computer resources; this time reincarnated as millions of users accessing solutions spread over vast server farms. All of this led to what we now know as “the cloud,” and the reinvention of the “time-share” model. …..

http://www.directionsmag.com/articles/the-evolution-of-the-cloud-revolution-part-1/122324

Benefits of the Cloud to Geospatial Organizations

Geospatial organizations need to securely make volumes of geospatial data and services available to their customers. They require solutions to easily store and manage data, and also supply rich sets of Web services that enable not only data delivery but also a variety of unique functions such as catalog queries, data and coordinate transformations, vector editing, mapping capabilities, geo processes and much more. For isolated events, infrastructure must be elastic to accommodate sudden increases in demand so that strain does not become overwhelming, and to avoid unnecessary capital expenditures on hardware, software and services.  ….

http://www.directionsmag.com/articles/the-evolution-of-the-cloud-revolution-part-two/129856