Use of remote computers has been around since at least 1964, but the current marketing buzz called Cloud Computing might make you think there’s something new. However Cloud Computing is merely the newest label for the 1964 remote computing service called "Time-Sharing" at Dartmouth College using a General Electric 235 computers (and dumb terminals -Teletype 33/34). Since 1964 the same idea of using remote computing as "Time-Sharing" has a number of labels including:
ASP -Application Service Provider
SaaS – Software as a Service
PaaS –Platform as a Service
A recent legal conference included a panel discussion about Cloud legal issues, however not once did the panel ever refer to any of these prior names, and in fact the panel members acted as if the technology and legal issues included in the Cloud Computing were something new. In fact the technology and legal issues are really very old news!
What is different about Cloud Computing is that all the Internet powerhouse players offer Cloud Computing services including IBM, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Salesforce, and many more.