When a new technology is introduced, many people respond with similar questions, like: “When was it invented?”, “What is the history of the concept?” or “What are the prospects for the future?”. Often times, when people think of web applications, we think of something that is a relatively new concept. However, web based applications have been in the works since the early 80’s.

Web applications and other internet-based services continue to develop rapidly to this day. While where we are now seems like it may have been obvious years ago, the evolution was not necessarily a straight path. Like many modern utilities, a decade ago, it would have been hard to guess that this is where we would end up.

History of the Web App

Through this evolution, web applications have gone through a number of major alterations that make them more and more accessible and affordable. The biggest transformation in web app history was in 2002 when Amazon started its venture: Amazon Web Services. Through Amazon Web Services, users were able to access storage, computation solutions, and other applications through the internet. Then, in 2006, Amazon developed the Elastic Compute cloud (EC2), which essentially allowed developers to rent computer space to store and run their own application. Finally, in 2009, as Web 2.0 took off, a majority of the industry influencing companies like Microsoft and Google were on board, and making web applications available to the average consumer and businesses.

Web App Statistics

This technology is available so readily that it is possible for businesses to each have their own, unique, web application used to support the business. In fact, since 2008 companies are exponentially spending more money every year on web applications. There was $131.2 billion spent on cloud computing systems in 2013 alone, and $155 billion predicted to be spent by the end of this year (1). Of the money being spent, 56% of cloud usage is taken up by hosting web applications (1).

What do you think?

As web applications continue to be more accessible, the questions becomes, “What’s next?” What do you think the future holds for web applications?  If you already use a web-based application, how does it make your business more effective?

(1) https://visual.ly/cloud-computing-facts-and-predictions-2014