iCloud was introduced in 2011, but its cloud-computing technology stretches back to the early 2000’s. But before we get into that, let me clarify what iCloud is for those for those of you who may not know. Basically, iCloud is a service for Apple devices that lets you store files on remote servers rather than on your own device. This frees up storage space on your Apple device and allows your files to be accessible from any device connected to your iCloud account. So if you take a photo on your iPhone, it’ll automatically be available on your Mac, iPad, and Apple TV. It’s a pretty cool concept that may sound simple, but implementation was extremely challenging and took several iterations to work correctly. To fully understand the role of iCloud and all its preceding services, we’ll have to zoom out and take a look at the development of the entire cloud computing industry.