It's called "the cloud" because the underlying infrastructure of cloud computing – servers, data storage, and networking – is abstracted away from the user and located in remote data centers, often depicted as a cloud in network diagrams.
Here's a more detailed explanation:
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Abstraction and Remote Location: The term "cloud" is used to represent the idea that the actual physical location of the computing resources is hidden from the user. You don't need to know where the servers are physically located, or how many there are. All you need to know is that you can access your data and applications over the internet. This is similar to how you don't need to know the specific route electricity takes to reach your home; you simply plug in your device and it works.
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Early Network Diagrams: The visual representation of networks in diagrams often used a cloud shape to represent the internet or other complex networks where the specifics of the underlying infrastructure were not important to the diagram's purpose. This imagery carried over to describe this new model of distributed computing.
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No Local Resources Required: Instead of relying on local hardware like servers or hard drives on your own computer or in your office, you're accessing resources housed in datacenters owned and maintained by a third-party provider. The "cloud" is where your data and applications reside.
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Scalability and Elasticity: Cloud computing offers scalability, meaning you can easily increase or decrease the resources you're using based on your needs. Think of it like a power grid – you use more power when you need it, and less when you don't. The "cloud" expands and contracts as needed.
In summary, the name "cloud" stuck because it effectively conveys the abstract and distributed nature of the underlying infrastructure that supports cloud computing services. The physical servers and data centers are hidden from the user, who simply accesses resources and services over the internet, much like how you access information depicted as residing within a cloud on network diagrams.
