02 May The Johnny Appleseed of Cloud Computing
Fun Cloud Computing History
J.C.R. Licklider: The Johnny Appleseed of Cloud Computing
It started in 1962, when computer science pioneer J.C.R. Licklider enabled the development of the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network, or ARPANET – the packet switching method of digital communications that has been called by many technology historians “the progenitor of what was to become the global Internet.”
In August of that year, Licklider introduced the idea of an “intergalactic computer network” while working for the enterprise that is now BBN Technologies. Through a series of internal memos, he addressed the concepts that are said to contain almost everything that the Internet is today, including what we now know as cloud computing. According to Margaret Lewis, product marketing director at computer processing giant AMD, Licklider’s vision was for not only for everyone on the globe to be interconnected, but also able to access programs and data from anywhere. Lewis explained, “It is a vision that sounds a lot like what we are calling cloud computing.” But Licklider, now referenced as the “Johnny Appleseed ” of computing technology, was not alone in the push to create a global network.