(Seriously, this might be a mini-vent. Let’s see where it goes…)
According to Answers.com the Oxford English dictionary has 464 definitions for the word Set. The term Cloud is quick on its heels. Some little guy locked away in the deep dark recesses of Oxford is scratching his head.
Here’s what I like about the term Cloud:
- It provides a well-spring of cute idioms for marketecture folks.
- Some evil architect decided that the shoe fit. Vapor-ware is very close to being cloud-like and fluffy (especially when combined with hand waiving during presentations.)
- Clouds change and so can it’s definition (ala Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com) or more recently, Robert Green of Briefing.com instructing a huge constituency of Financial Analysts about how Smartphones were helping to define the cloud.
Unfortunately, everyone has an opinion about what a cloud is: auto-provisioning, software as a service, server independent (even name and device-independent!), and now, private clouds powered by and managed with appliances (a cool new concept by Microsoft).
I’m sticking with my definition: “fluffy thing that you can’t touch”. Whenever someone uses the term, I’m going to ask them for their current definition before the wind gets ahold of it.
The cool part is that the old definition for what a cloud is - in technological terms is “on demand”. I can always imagine a cloud….
