Though many people tout cloud computing as the next big thing, the idea is almost as old as the computer itself.

The concept was born in the 1960s from the ideas of pioneers like J.C.R. Licklider (instrumental in the development of ARPANET) envisioning computation in the form of a global network and John McCarthy (who coined the term “artificial intelligence”) framing computation as a public utility. Some of the first uses included the processing of financial transactions and census data.

Flash forward to 1997, when the term “cloud computing” was first used by information systems professor Ramnath Chellappa.

Within just a few years, companies began switching from hardware to cloud services because they were attracted to benefits like a reduction in capital costs as well as an easing in IT staffing issues.

But the No. 1 benefit companies cite is efficiency.

According to a recent Carbon Disclosure Project report, companies that streamline operations to improve IT performance will not only reduce capital expenditures but they’ll shrink energy consumption and carbon emissions. The group estimated that, by 2020, U.S. organizations that move to the cloud could save $12.3 billion in energy costs and the equivalent of 200 million barrels of oil.

In 2009, revenue for cloud services was just over $68 billion. In 2011, IT spending is expected to top $3.6 trillion. And with cloud computing accounting for just 2.3 percent of the global market, there’s plenty of room for growth: The research firm Gartner projects that revenue for cloud services will approach $15 trillion in 2014.

One factor that’s driving demand for cloud computing is the explosive growth of data. According to projections by Century Link, by 2015, the world will see a four-fold increase in the amount of data being created and replicated. And once all of that data comes into being, you need a way to store it all securely and allow end-users to access it efficiently.

And that demand is what’s putting a silver lining on the cloud.