The historical development of cloud computing began in the 1950s with AT&T developing a centralized data architecture and network to enable businesses to access information over updated phone lines. Over subsequent decades, technologies like internet service providers, application service providers, and utility computing emerged, establishing the principles of centralized, on-demand computing resources delivered over a network. These precursors to modern cloud computing included distributed systems, mainframes, grid/supercomputing, and Web 2.0 technologies that emphasized sharing information and collaboration online in a more dynamic way.