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1. What is Cloud Computing?

• Cloud Computing History

The emergence and spread of the Internet have led to a revolution
in the way computers and services are handled. During its early
days, specifically in the fifties of the last century, the commonly
used internet-based model was known as the client-server
architecture, where the term "client" stands for the various
computers that are used by individuals. On the other hand, the
term "server" refers to other computers known as mainframes that
are larger than those used by the client in terms of (i) processors,
where many multi-core processors were usually used, (ii) memory,
where they used more memory than those available to customers,
and (iii) storage capacities, where they were larger compared to
what customers were using. These capabilities allowed the servers
to support multiple customers at once. It is noteworthy that these
servers were connected and placed in buildings known as “data
centers” with storage devices and they were under tight control in
power, cooling, and accessibility for operational and security
reasons.

Over time, networking and storage technologies have become
more complex, which in turn has been reflected in their
management process that has become more difficult. This was
because IT professionals needed to manage the servers’
infrastructure in the data centers to ensure that their software and
hardware were working well, which in turn meant the need for
capital and operating expenses. Despite the amount of the
consumed expenses, these prepared centers were not necessarily
utilized at its full capacity all the time. Therefore, and for the
optimization purposes, technological proposals were introduced
that were known at that time as time-sharing. The idea of this
proposal involved sharing the data centers’ resources, mainframes
and the time taken by the central processing unit (CPU) in handling
commands within these devices. The aim was to reduce the
required expenses for data centers and to distribute the
operational costs of these centers among users while considering

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