Platforms, the Web and the cloud
Google and Amazon: Computing moves online and into the cloud
From Web search to renting storage and processing on demand.
In this lesson
The main idea
As the Web expanded, much value moved from local software to connected services, data centers and APIs.
Companies and milestones
- 1998 — Google: launched a company around ranking Web pages at scale. Type: software/Internet service.
- 2006 — Amazon Web Services S3: elastic storage requested online rather than infrastructure bought in advance. Type: software + infrastructure.
- 2006 — AWS EC2: on-demand virtual compute changed how digital products are launched and operated. Type: cloud software over data-center hardware.
- 2008 — Google Chrome: a multi-process browser helped the Web act as a faster, more stable application platform. Type: software.
Why was this a qualitative leap?
Owning a server was no longer required to start a project; storage and compute became services that could scale on demand.
Check your understanding
Is the cloud software or hardware?
Answer
Both: physical data centers, processors and networks managed by software layers and exposed as elastic Internet services.