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Cloud computing means storing files and running programs on computers in large, distant data centres instead of on your own device. Providers rent out that capacity by the hour or by the gigabyte, so anyone from a small start-up to a large bank can use as much computing power as it needs without buying machines.

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The idea is older than the name. In 1961 the computer scientist John McCarthy suggested that computing might one day be sold like water or electricity, as a public utility, and in the 1960s organisations already shared one large, expensive central computer, or mainframe, among many users through a method called time-sharing. Engineers had long drawn the telephone network, and later the internet, as a cloud in their diagrams, and the phrase 'cloud computing' appears in a 1996 business plan at the computer maker Compaq. The modern industry took off in 2006, when Amazon Web Services began renting out storage (S3) and computing power (EC2) to any business or developer, who paid only for what they used.

Türkçe oku
Bulut bilişim, dosyaları saklamak ve programları çalıştırmak için kendi cihazınız yerine uzaktaki büyük veri merkezlerindeki bilgisayarları kullanmaktır. Bu kapasite saatlik ya da gigabayt başına kiralanır; böylece küçük bir girişimden büyük bir bankaya kadar herkes, makine satın almadan ihtiyacı kadar işlem gücü kullanabilir.

Fikir, adından eskidir. Bilgisayar bilimci John McCarthy 1961'de, bilişimin bir gün su ya da elektrik gibi bir kamu hizmeti olarak satılabileceğini öne sürdü. 1960'larda kurumlar büyük ve pahalı bir merkezi bilgisayarı, yani ana bilgisayarı, “zaman paylaşımı” denen yöntemle zaten aynı anda birçok kullanıcıya açıyordu. Mühendisler de telefon ağını, sonra da interneti şemalarında uzun süre bir bulut olarak çizdi. “Bulut bilişim” ifadesi, bilgisayar üreticisi Compaq'ın 1996 tarihli bir iş planında geçer. Bugünkü sektör 2006'da, Amazon Web Services'in depolama alanını (S3) ve işlem gücünü (EC2) her işletmeye ve yazılımcıya kiralamaya başlamasıyla hız kazandı; müşteriler yalnızca kullandıkları kadar ödüyordu.

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Background reading: Cloud computing
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