Technology moves fast. Context matters. Independent by design ↗
vnunet.
Explore topics

Find your next rabbit hole.

Explore the collection, or type to search.

ExplainerYahoo closes GeoCities: how the web lost millions of home pagesYahoo bought GeoCities for billions in 1999 and switched it off a decade later. The closure became a turning point for web preservation.ExplainerThe Storm worm: the botnet that started with a weather headlineIn January 2007 an email about deadly storms in Europe spread a Trojan that built one of the largest peer-to-peer botnets of its time.ExplainerGPLv3: how the free software licence was rewrittenAfter 18 months of public drafting, the Free Software Foundation published version 3 of the GNU General Public License in June 2007.ExplainerThe UK identity card scheme: from Act of Parliament to shredded registerBritain legislated for national ID cards backed by a central biometric register, then abolished the whole scheme within five years.ExplainerThe netbook era: small, cheap laptops that briefly drove PC growthThe Asus Eee PC started a boom in low-cost mini laptops that propped up PC sales, until tablets and thinner laptops took their place.

Press Esc to close

Topic

Enterprise IT

Enterprise IT changed from owning racks of servers to renting capacity. This hub collects the shifts in how organisations bought, ran and paid for their technology.

Timeline

  1. 2006Amazon Web Services launches its first public cloud services.
  2. 2008Virtualisation becomes standard in corporate data centres.
  3. 2010Cloud computing becomes a mainstream procurement option.

Explainers

New explainers for this topic are being written. Meanwhile, browse all tech history.