Is Cloud a Dumb Word?
I toss around the term cloud quite a bit -- after all, I do have a newsletter called The Cloud Report that features my blog called 'Doug on Cloud.' And after casting doubt on the term in this item, I'll continue to use it.
Don Jones, a Microsoft MVP and a columnist I work with, wrote a piece called Please Stop Saying Cloud.
Don's point is that services we now call 'cloud' have been around for years. Hosted e-mail and Web serving are two examples. These are called cloud services, along with other services that are perhaps more clearly cloud that are, as Don describes, "on-demand provisioning and pay-as-you-go."
I've heard similar arguments from cloud purists. And from a theoretical perspective, they and Don are right.
From a practical perspective, I'm comfortable calling most any application that runs on the Internet and accessed through a browser, thin client or PC a cloud app.
But hey, I'm just a journalist. Chance is if you are reading this, you are an IT pro who's opinion really matters.
How do you define the cloud? Lay it on us by writing [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 04/25/2011 at 1:18 PM