Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I also remember other previously more fashionable terms including ‘Grid Computing’ or ‘Utility Computing’.

My very cleaver friend and Cloud specialist Simon Wardly has recently had a go at defining ‘Cloud Computing’. Although he says:

“..the attempt to come up with a precise, all encompassing and concrete definition of cloud computing is flawed. Cloud computing isn’t a thing, it’s a combination of underlying factors that are causing a transition in the information technology industry.”

And I think he is right, its is about transition and we are moving through evolutionary phases. As you say the Internet is the Cloud and visa-versa. The Internet was a huge step forward. A revolutionary step some say. However we love our terms and rapid trends in the Tech industry. Gartner have put ‘Cloud Computing’ high-up on their Hype Cycle and not going mainstream for 2-5 years. So yet another term may fall by the wayside. However we are moving forward with the same underlying principle – a multi-tenant, pay as you go and elastic on-line service. Or as Mr Wardley so Snappily put it:

““Cloud computing” is a consequence of economic, commercial, cultural and technological conditions that have combined together to cause a disruptive shift in I.T. towards a service based economy.”

I hope this clears your “haze” around the Cloud (sorry )

Best

Nick

I first came across the term when it was referred to as ‘cloud computing’ and referred to computing power. The cloud computing architecture would allow you to switch on extra servers at the time they were needed. This usually referred to massive computation processes such as 3D rendering or mathematical processing. This applied to the idea that you can fire up 30 servers to complete your task without having to purchase, configure and maintain 30 servers that would only be used on an ad-hoc basis. This was rarely financially viable, physically possible or timely enough for the work being carried out.

Cloud has now developed to mean remote, which in the age of the Internet where everything is remote does not mean anything. Is an email in the cloud, are my photos in the cloud, is this comment in the cloud? I never used to think so, but now I may have to begin accepting that it is. The real problem is that this terminology has become… hazy.