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The Ideal, Non-Proprietary Cloud
jg21 writes "As previously discussed on Slashdot, the new tendency to speak of 'The Cloud' or 'Cloud Computing' often seems to generate more heat than light, but one familiar industry fault line is becoming clear — those who believe clouds can be proprietary vs. those who believe they should be free. One CEO who sides with open clouds in order that companies can pick and choose from vendors depending on precisely what they need has written a detailed article in which he outlines how, in his opinion, Platform-as-a-Service should work. He identifies nine features of 'an ideal PaaS cloud' including the requirement that 'Developers should be able to interact with the cloud computer, to do business with it, without having to get on the phone with a sales person, or submit a help ticket.' [From the article: 'I think this means that cloud computing companies will, just like banks, begin more and more to "loan" each other infrastructure to handle our own peaks and valleys, But in order for this to happen we'd need the next requirement.']"
... That cloud computing silver lining has started to tarnish already?
Ctrl-Z
No, you just don't get how awesome it'll be to get all your Web 2.5rc1 content via Internet2 through the cloud, man... it'll totally shift your paradigm.
I've looked at clouds from both sides now,
From up and down, and still somehow,
It's cloud illusions I recall,
I really don't know clouds, at all.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
Today's forecaset: cloudy. This afternoon, continued cloudy with occasional periods of distributed computing.
Tonight: Dark, with periods of light toward morning.
Tomorrow: Ignorant, with occasional words coined by the ignorant used by the knowledgable. May be occasional clouds in the afternoon. In case of tornado, stay in your basement.
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
Every buzzword soaked trade publication on the planet has Cloud on the cover now. When looking for a job, I'm going to put my name and contact info on my resume. Then, in place of the usual job history and qualifications I will put, in the largest font that fits, one word: CLOUD. My pay will go up 25%. Then, in 6 months, people will be saying "remember cloud computing?".
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Ok, I hate buzzwords as much as the next person not wearing a pale blue shirt...
But I'd like to suggest "cloudware" as a potential interchangeable word for "vapourware".
For obvious reasons...