
48% Of IT Workers Don't Get "Cloud Computing" - taylorbuley
http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/services/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229000142&cid=RSSfeed_IWK_ALL
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burgerbrain
It's just a stupid marketing term that describes things we've been doing for
_decades_. Furthermore, the term brings with it _baggage_ to issues that
normally wouldn't be controversial or scoffed at.

Why should I "get" it?

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InclinedPlane
Indeed, "cloud computing" is so overused, misused, and overhyped that it's
lost its meaning as a specific technical term. Case in point: Microsoft's
bizarre "to the cloud" commercials which seem to conflate cloud computing with
collaborative web applications, which is just silly.

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sophacles
This has been going on for a very long time. Not to say you're wrong, just
that MS didn't invent the conflation.

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InclinedPlane
Certainly. But MS should know better (they have a legit (seemingly) cloud
computing platform), and the degree of publicity generated for this abuse of
language is troublesome. There are now millions of people who never knew about
"the cloud" before and now think of it as some MS invention where you can
retouch photos online. :P

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sophacles
This just in: vague term with multiple definitions leaves people confused!

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angdis
Let's take it to "The Cloud" !

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johngalt
Does your staff know about <buzzword>? If not you should be painfully
embarrased. How can you run an effective organization without <buzzword>?

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jswinghammer
When anything can be and is called "Cloud" then what's there to get?

Microsoft's stupidest advertisements to date involve people saying "To the
cloud" to use what appears to be ordinary desktop applications with an "Upload
to Facebook" button included. Is that really cloud computing? I guess? I have
no way to say either way.

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dkarl
I wouldn't call Gmail cloud-based. Google manages all of their own hardware.
To me, cloud computing means flexible use of shared general-purpose computing
resources that are managed and provided as a service. Gmail would be cloud-
based if Google ran it on a bunch of Amazon EC2 instances.

Using "cloud computing" to refer to the use of server applications over the
internet is just a misunderstanding of the term. The surprising thing it
reveals is that somebody is still looking for a name for that kind of
computing in 2010, which suggests that they're still trying to wrap their
heads around it. One wonders what kind of confusion will be created in the
buzzword stratosphere (upper management) when one exec starts talking about
cloud initiatives and another exec says, "What are you talking about? Our
services have been cloud-based since 2002."

 _Of the respondents who that said their organization used Web-based software
for email, CRM, productivity, conferencing, and other uses, 54% did not
identify them as cloud applications._

Does this mean that 46% of respondents have the same incorrect understanding
of the term that the author does, or am I the one who is wrong? Either way,
this kind of confusion means that "cloud computing" does not mean anything at
all anymore. I guess that makes it a blank check for bullshit artists.

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jerf
If "cloud" is to have any meaning, it can't merely be synonymous with
"client/server on the Internet". From here, I can't tell whether Gmail or
Salesforce is a single server or a "cloud". Yes, logically I know what they
are, but it's not relevant to me as a user.

I can come up with multiple possible meanings of cloud that are not vacuous,
but this article does not seem to be using any of them.

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hawkinsw
This article and headline are completely misleading. The question, from TFA,

"One of the survey's questions asked: "Do you feel that the cloud has
potential for your business?" 49% answered: "I don't know." 48% likewise
responded "I don't know" when asked if their company used any cloud-based
applications or services."

If someone asked me those questions, there are myriads reasons to respond "I
don't know". Perhaps I don't know about EVERY initiative going on in the
business or perhaps (gasp!) I don't believe that the cloud "magically" helps
my business. It does not NECESSARILY mean that I am clueless about the cloud.

This type of thing really makes me angry.

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veb
I remember a few weeks back, Paul Buchheit was talking about how he believes
ChromeOS may get merged with Android or similar and he mentioned "The basic
idea is that apps and data all live on the Internet, which is has been renamed
"The Cloud" " - and the response from some IT people was astounding. I had
friends go, "no that's not true! Cloud is a new thing blahblahblahblah CDN
blah blah blah". I mean, what the hell? It's been around longer than I've been
alive!

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pothibo
Wow two third of the people surveyed have functions such as sales, finance, or
management. How you can come up with 48% of IT Workers... For the most part of
that 2/3, they don't even know Microsoft Office works on a mac.

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forgotAgain
Another marketing survey that confirms the need for the sponsoring firm. What
a surprise.

