The making of cloud computing: an antecedent of scalability

This paper offers a historically situated analysis of cloud computing. Cloud computing is a paradigm for provisioning computing infrastructure that now has enormous reach. It is defined by its unique scalability. This unique scalability has proven to be enormously impactful in the digital economy and beyond, shaping the emergence of platform ecosystems, the development of AI, and the process of digitalization in the 21st century. As important as it is to grapple with this scalability, it is easy to reify. This paper examines emergent sociotechnical practices that sought to make the computer more flexible. The study focuses on specific efforts within the Research Department of a major US technology company. The analysis of scalability I offer is based on interviews with former engineers in this Lab as well as archival material. I trace projects and practices as teams forayed into making a relatively fixed machine more dynamic and more scalable. This paper advances emerging literatures on cloud computing and digital infrastructure by offering a grounded analysis of scalability-in-the-making.