

Romanticizing cloud computing will destroy it - snydeq
http://weblog.infoworld.com/whurley/archives/2009/01/get_your_head_o.html

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pj
Redefining cloud computing to mean "the internet" will destroy it. Cloud
computing is not about accessing services over the web. It's about hardware
infrastructure that can scale automatically, or at least programmatically,
without having to add physical devices to the network.

If you are going to use a /new/ term to describe something, use it to describe
something that actually /is/ new, not something that has been around for 15
years! That's why people get sick of marketing "gurus" and journalists who
keep redefining stuff to mean the same old thing that they thought they
understood, but really they have no clue...

Cloud computing actually is something new and it's powerful and it is going to
change the world. Just like the Internet did. But please remember that Cloud
computing is a subset of the Internet, not the /entire/ internet!

If you marketing/journalist/(know nothing but want to capitalize on it) types
want to redefine cloud computing to mean anything accessed over the Internet,
then that too is changing the world. We said it would change the world and it
DID change the world.

Look around. According to another link on HN right now, only 25% of America
/isn't/ on the web. That's amazing considering almost no one was on the web
just 15 years ago.

The problem here is that people think, "OMG, The Internet is going to change
everything!" like people are going to be driving to work over the Internet!

Oh wait, people don't even /need/ to drive to work anymore because of the
Internet. people don't need cars because of the internet. They work from home
because of the internet. They order pizza and groceries and pay their phone
bills over the internet.

Okay fine, you want to redefine cloud computing to mean "anything accessed
over the internet" and then you want to argue that it's hype and it won't
change the world?

Well it already has.

Look around.

