Gartner Buzzword Tracker Says "Cloud Computing" Still on Hype Wave

If you're sick of the term "cloud" to refer to pretty much anything on "the internet" and consider that phrase a symptom of useless MBA, PHB, PowerPoint talking points oozing where they don't belong, sorry — you'll probably have to endure it for a while yet. Nerval's Lobster writes that Gartner's 2012 Hype Cycle of Emerging Technologies says that "Cloud computing" (along with a few other terms, such as "Near Field Communication" and "media tablets") is not just alive but growing. "Gartner uses the report to monitor the rise, maturity and decline of certain terms and concepts, the better for corporate strategists and planners to predict how things will trend over the next few months or years. As part of the report, Gartner's analysts have built a Hype Cycle which positions technologies on a graph tracing their rise, overexposure, inevitable fall, and eventual rehabilitation as quiet, productive, well-integrated, thoroughly un-buzz-worthy technologies. Right now, Gartner views hybrid cloud computing, Big Data, crowdsourcing, and the 'Internet of Things' as on the rise, while private cloud computing, social analytics and the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) phenomenon are coasting at the Peak of Inflated Expectations."

Comments

Buzzword compliance

[MrEricSir]

Slashdot needs to update their text for buzzword compliance. Instead of "submitting" comments to Slashdot, it should indicate that I'm "syncing comments to the cloud."

Re:Buzzword compliance

[pegasustonans]

Slashdot needs to update their text for buzzword compliance. Instead of "submitting" comments to Slashdot, it should indicate that I'm "syncing comments to the cloud."

+1 depressing

Re:Buzzword compliance

[GoodNewsJimDotCom]

This would promote synergy in the global open source ecosystem causing upward mobility of natural language and ultimately a paradigm shift.

Re:Buzzword compliance

[lister king of smeg]

for web 2.0 cloud compliance all mods are to be replaced with "like"

Re:Buzzword compliance

[PPH]

Bingo!

Re:Buzzword compliance

[Anonymous Coward]

My anus hurts from this sentence.

Re:Buzzword compliance

[DigiShaman]

And you forgot to provide a link to The Corporate Bullshit Generator. For shame!

Re:Buzzword compliance

[Anonymous Coward]

You sound just like my college teacher who teaches all the bullshit classes.

Re:Buzzword compliance

[PhoenixAtlantios]

It'd be great to have an automated version of Buzzword Bingo using the Kinect's voice recognition; you could track all of the buzzwords thrown around an office during the day instead of just one meeting/event.

Re:Buzzword compliance

[Anonymous Coward]

You like to be depressed?

Timothy, did you write this yourself?

[Hadlock]

Are editors having to write their own stories now? I don't see a user attributed to this post. Has Slashdot sunk so low that their submission queue has run dry?

Re:Timothy, did you write this yourself?

[Anonymous Coward]

Silly newb. This is a slashvertizement from Gartner.

Re:Timothy, did you write this yourself?

[Samantha Wright]

May I recommend a new ophthalmologist?

Nerval's Lobster writes that Gartner's 2012 Hype Cycle of Emerging Technologies says that "Cloud computing" (along with a few other terms, such as "Near Field Communication" and "media tablets") is not just alive but growing.

Re:Timothy, did you write this yourself?

[postbigbang]

They believe, these new editor folks, in buzzwords. They even know that Gartner is bought and paid for. Yet they'll run this drivel, as Gartner has the fat corporate market by the short-hairs. The juiciest of juice, all dripping, following every sparrow fart Gartner utters. It's somewhat revolting. Ok, really revolting.

In actuality, nothing happens because Gartner believes it will, only by coincidence will a prediction come true. Otherwise, we'd be using OS/2, and using our screen-pop phones from Lucent, headed by Carly Fiorina! It's a sad state of affairs, folks.

Re:Timothy, did you write this yourself?

[Hadlock]

His name wasn't included initially. Also, he's not a slashdot user, the link for his name goes to his geek.com email address.

Re:Timothy, did you write this yourself?

[couchslug]

"Has Slashdot sunk so low that their submission queue has run dry?"

Slashdot will never run dry. Here's the submission queue:

http://www.fark.com/

Re:Timothy, did you write this yourself?

[Samantha Wright]

It's true that he doesn't appear to be a Slashdot user (mysterious noises here), but I'm pretty sure it's standard that the link goes to an e-mail address.

Re:Timothy, did you write this yourself?

[rgbrenner]

his name goes to his geek.com email address.

Actually.. it's geek.net, ie the company that owns slashdot
http://geek.net/

Gardner. Asshats that say the obvious for money

[Anonymous Coward]

These guys publish anything so you can remember to here them when you want a third party to prove what you believe in. Useless shills for hire, fuck Gartner.

Re:Gardner. Asshats that say the obvious for money

[Anonymous Coward]

Useless shills for hire, fuck Gartner.

Yes! Fuck gardener! Says anything for money!

Such a shill for my grass clipping. Send him back to Yugoslav republic!

Talk dirty to me

[Anonymous Coward]

This would promote synergy in the global open source ecosystem causing upward mobility of natural language and ultimately a paradigm shift.

As an MBA, I'd like to say that you made me cum!

Off to change my shorts.

Re:Talk dirty to me

[Frosty Piss]

As an MBA, I'd like to say that you made me cum!

So, "as an MBA", who's mouth were you cumming in?

Re:Talk dirty to me

[Anonymous Coward]

yours

Meta

[Anonymous Coward]

Gartner Buzzword Tracker Says "Buzzword" Still On Hype Wave

Re:Meta

[pegasustonans]

Gartner Buzzword Tracker Says "Buzzword" Still On Hype Wave

Is a term used in an advertisement descriptive of a specific technology, item or service you can learn more about? If not, it's probably a buzzword.

Is a term used to describe things for which there is no set beginning and no creator or founder? If so, it's probably a buzzword.

It's not perfect, but it seems to me buzzword has a relatively specific (and useful) definition. I suppose we could all say "horseshit" instead of "buzzword," but that might not go over as well at the next all hands meeting...

Re:Meta

[Anonymous Coward]

Thank you for pointing out my error. Hopefully this will spark a paradigm shift that will allow me to leverage a greater memetic awareness towards greater synergy in the future.

totally on the cloud

[Trepidity]

riding chill waves of condensed water

It's a good word...

[Charliemopps]

I kind of think "The cloud" at least in corporate terms, is entering a second life now. When it first came about, it was a lot of hype and nonsense. And I saw a lot of Execs getting excited about it and moving services to it. Over the years I've seen them realize the pitfalls of the services. Poor support, major security issues, unpredictable downtime relating to hardware issues we have no way of knowing about. But now I've seen it coming into it's own with the execs realizing that it IS good for some things. Your support site? Sure! Even if your whole company goes to shit it's still up. Your billing database? NOOOO...

Re:It's a good word...

[ackthpt]

I kind of think "The cloud" at least in corporate terms, is entering a second life now. When it first came about, it was a lot of hype and nonsense. And I saw a lot of Execs getting excited about it and moving services to it. Over the years I've seen them realize the pitfalls of the services. Poor support, major security issues, unpredictable downtime relating to hardware issues we have no way of knowing about. But now I've seen it coming into it's own with the execs realizing that it IS good for some things. Your support site? Sure! Even if your whole company goes to shit it's still up. Your billing database? NOOOO...

Our present experience with it - users are hampered by their work. Clouds overloaded and unresponsive. Effectively it's not a hugely useful tool, yet. I suppose it will get better, as soon as someone is making some money at it and competition takes it's work seriously, rather than just being "Me, too!"

Re:It's a good word...

[Midnight Thunder]

The alternative term, which I find less fuzzy sounding is 'hosted services'. For me, 'cloud computing' just seems like a term to obfuscate stuff and make marketing people happy.

Re:It's a good word...

[Charliemopps]

Well, "The Cloud" isn't just one service. There are thousands of businesses out there offering Cloud services. Pick a good one, and have a good contract that demands what you need.

Re:It's a good word...

[Charliemopps]

Hosted Service, Software as a service, it's all just names... I believe "The Cloud" is just a larger term for all of this stuff. Yea, it's marketing, but isn't everything? I get to watch my marketing department re-label what a T1 is every 6 months. It's stupid, but that's why I'm not in marketing.

Re:It's a good word...

[starfishsystems]

Much to my surprise, I've come to understand that "cloud computing" is a distinctive and legitimate term for a particular approach to managing computing resources.

It's not a consequence of any single technology, except virtualization perhaps. It's more the idea of what becomes possible at the point where you can provision, manage, use, and deprovision a practical computing environment entirely in software.

It's not that the underlying hardware doesn't exist and can't make itself felt through outages of all the usual kinds. It's that we've effected a practical separation of concerns between the virtual environment and the physical one.

It's as important, in its way, as the shift between counting actual cattle versus counting up tallies on a stick. Ultimately you still need the cows, of course, as individual beings, but abstract numbers are a lot easier to carry around with you.

Re:It's a good word...

[starfishsystems]

I should add a comment about the term "hosted services". Yes, in principle this might do just as well. Bit I don't think it entirely captures the degree of paradigm shift that we're talking about. A hosted service is an abstract service all right. And without abstract services you can't possibly speak of a cloud implementation of anything. But I think we maintain a lingering semantic association of "hosting" a service in something physical. Maybe that feels comforting, to remember that in fact it's not turtles all the way down. But that lingering thought doesn't permit the complete separation of concerns that distinguishes cloud computing.

in the clown...

[MaerD]

s/cloud/clown
makes reading stories about "clown gaming", "clown storage", and anything else they put in the clown much more interesting.

Re:in the clown...

[PPH]

Is this a nice, friendly clown? Or a Steven King clown, like IT?

Hmm, an IT angle here. I wonder how far one could write a white paper on the use of Cloud Computing as being a "penny wise" move for the company before someone catches on?

Re:in the clown...

[Anonymous Coward]

Not sure, but I'd say it would be "pound foolish"...

Re:in the clown...

[MaerD]

We all float down here, in the clown.

Re:in the clown...

[Anonymous Coward]

I store all my pornography in the clown.

Anyone remember

[sjames]

Way back when if we would just make our apps CORBA compliant they would all magically integrate with no human effort whatsoever? And then XML promised the same?

Now, apparently if we go with cloud computing, the desktops and LANs will magically maintain themselves for no discernible reason, apparently.

Re:Anyone remember

[afgam28]

Now, apparently if we go with cloud computing, the desktops and LANs will magically maintain themselves for no discernible reason, apparently.

I don't think any cloud provider has ever promised anything like that. Can you give an example of one?

Re:Anyone remember

[Anonymous Coward]

Sure they didn't, why would they open themselves for a false advertising lawsuit and other liabilities?

Bullshit pushers like magazines for managers, on the other hand, do try to leave the impression that you just need to move your servers to the cloud and - poof! - no need for that cost center named "IT dept." anymore.

Re:Anyone remember

[afgam28]

So what's your point? Bad magazines make untrue statements? Why should that stop the rest of us from discussing and using the cloud to our advantage?

Re:Anyone remember

[sjames]

True, but it does seem to be part of the hype.

Whenever that sort of thing happens, many ad slicks start growing virtual ellipsis so the pointy haired can fill in the blanks from the hype. But they never actually make such claims in a legally binding sort of way. Often, it isn't the vendor, but the high priced consultant who will set up the vendor's product for you that does this.

Re:Anyone remember

[crdotson]

You will always need access devices, true. However, there are a lot of orgs out there running servers who a) don't need a whole server and b) really don't want to run servers. You think your local mechanic shop wants to do anything more complicated than than plug in a laptop and router?

Re:Anyone remember

[sjames]

The point isn't that cloud computing has NO value, just that it's value is more limited than it's hype.

For example, do you REALLY think that the mechanic who just wants to plug in a laptop and a router is going to be able to select and then maintain a service in the cloud? Maintain the local backups in case the cloud provider says 'OOPS!' (while wildly gesticulating at the disclaimers in the contract)? What happens to the business if that DSL connection goes kaput for a few days? Is there at least a limp-along plan so he can continue to do business? Who sets all of that up?

PART of that solution MIGHT be a cloud provider that will probably bear a suspicious resemblance to a managed colo provider.

Once reality strips the hype away, the 21st century's 'just put it in the cloud' looks a lot like the late 20th century's 'hire a consultant to set you up with a service provider'.

Hype Wave?

[SuperMog2002]

I thought Wave was dead.

Re:Hype Wave?

[pegasustonans]

I thought Wave was dead.

This is Wave 2.0

Re:Hype Wave?

[SuperMog2002]

Ooooh! Now I understand! It's a paradigm shift!

Re:Hype Wave?

[pegasustonans]

Ooooh! Now I understand! It's a paradigm shift!

I can see how you'd think that, but It's actually a discourse related to the cognitive dissonance inherent to the post-modern influx of cultural normativity.

What about digital?

[Osgeld]

While the cloud irks me, digital just makes me want to choke someone

"you can get this computer generated in both DVD AND DIGITAL!!!"
"now available for digital download!!!"
and on and on and on

Re:What about digital?

[Anonymous Coward]

digital is dead. G.Q. Palmer killed it, Compaq squished it, and HP crapped all over it.

And now the "on-premises cloud"

[michaelmalak]

And now there is the on-premises cloud.

The Onion

[cffrost]

The Onion seems to share the "hype" assessment:

HP Offers 'That Cloud Thing Everyone Is Talking About'

Words Mean Something

[Anonymous Coward]

Words mean something; they are shorthand labels that encapsulate concepts, so we don't have to spell everything out all the time.
For example:

Cloud Computing = Running your software and storing your data on a computer that you do not own and cannot control

So instead of boring my listener to death with "My business runs its software and stores its data on a computer we do not own and cannot control", I can simply say, "My business uses cloud computing."

Isn't that so much nicer?

Re:Words Mean Something

[Anonymous Coward]

Words mean shit, people!

When I say "shit," I don't mean shit as in "nothing," I mean shit as in "stuff."

Just like when I say "cloud," I don't mean an aggregate body of suspended vaporous precipitate, I mean "stuff."

So, just keep that in mind next time you criticize the cloud!

Re:Words Mean Something

[SecurityGuy]

Cloud Computing = Running your software and storing your data on a computer that you do not own and cannot control

Here's my problem. I was doing that 20 years ago. I know others were doing it longer ago than that. If that's truly all cloud computing is, then cloud computing is precisely nothing new at all.

IMO, cloud is a real thing, but it entails more than just putting your apps and data on someone else's server.

Re:Words Mean Something

[afgam28]

Words mean something; they are shorthand labels that encapsulate concepts, so we don't have to spell everything out all the time.
For example:

Cloud Computing = Running your software and storing your data on a computer that you do not own and cannot control

So instead of boring my listener to death with "My business runs its software and stores its data on a computer we do not own and cannot control", I can simply say, "My business uses cloud computing."

Isn't that so much nicer?

I'm sure the first phrase is a lot nicer to you, since it neatly encapsulates your prejudices against the technology. But not everyone is like you, and some people value different things from what you value. How about:

"My business runs its software on a fleet of computers that can grow and shrink automatically, based on CPU load limits that I define"
or
"My business stores its data in a database that is redundant across three data centers, and we didn't have to build or rent buildings all around the world"

For a lot of IT people, "My business uses cloud computing" probably suffices. But obviously for you, shorthand labels won't do; everything really does need to be spelled out all the time.

Re:Words Mean Something

[bolt_the_dhampir]

Don't forget the various subsets of "cloud computing".
If you have a "personal cloud", you actually do, at least least in part, control the computers. From the definition I got from Microsoft Norway, it pretty much just means your server room uses virtual machines in a dynamic way with lots of automation.

Re:Words Mean Something

[VortexCortex]

Yep, that's music to my ears, because I sell Lightning Insurance.

Re:Words Mean Something

[StormReaver]

Isn't that so much nicer?

The major problem is choosing a word that accurately describes the encapsulated concept. The term, "cloud computing" implies something soft and harmless. The more correct term is, "crapshoot computing", because you're gambling with your future.

what about the word "mainframe"

[Dan667]

anyone that has been around knows that "cloud" is just a marketing term for mainframes.

Re:what about the word "mainframe"

[lewko]

It can also mean "a computer under the developer's bed".

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Nerdgasm!

YOU FAIL IT!

[Anonymous Coward]

First, you have to erors. Future I WASTE OF BITS AND

More often called a private cloud

[Fred Ferrigno]

It's not as stupid as it sounds. The goal is to separate the administration of the physical hardware and the applications. The IT admins in the data center just maintain the servers and don't know or care what applications are running on them. The application admins in the office just maintain the application and don't know or care what servers it's running on.

Re:More often called a private cloud

[SecurityGuy]

And everybody tries to pretend it doesn't cost more in the long run.

To hell with the cloud

[Nethemas the Great]

Software as a service is nothing but a bloody business model based upon extortion. Can't afford to pay your fees, or your service provider goes out of business and you're completely hosed.

Re:To hell with the cloud

[Scowler]

I assume then, that you don't rely on any webmail service like Gmail, Yahoo Mail, or Hotmail, right?

Re:To hell with the cloud

[Nethemas the Great]

I'm not sure I understand what you're trying to get at. Email by definition is a "service". There is no alternative but a personally serviced sneaker net.

Re:To hell with the cloud

[afgam28]

You can choose to install sendmail on a server somewhere yourself, and connect to it using Thunderbird, or you can use Gmail.

You can choose to install MySQL on a server somewhere yourself, and connect to it using phpMyAdmin, or you can use Amazon's RDS.

If you had ever tried, you'd know that sendmail is an absolute bitch to configure properly. Most people don't bother, even those who are technically inclined. MySQL is less painful, but administrating a big database is still a lot of work.

Why you think email is a service "by definition", but other SaaS products are not?

Re:To hell with the cloud

[Nethemas the Great]

Irrelevant. You're dependent upon Internet service providers.

I however, can install locally a host of productivity and entertainment software that does not depend upon a service hosted "in the cloud". I do not need a cloud hosted IDE, word processor, a cloud hosted FPS, a cloud hosted storage server, music/video content, compute node, etc. etc.. each with a monthly rent, each vulnerable to external threats. Threats from business shutdown, threats from foreign or domestic attack, threats from rate increase, cash shortages, etc. etc.

Re:To hell with the cloud

[gblfxt]

not really, most of the time you can download a backup or copy (whats the difference?) before your service goes down. unless they are total sociopaths...

Re:To hell with the cloud

[Nethemas the Great]

So if your infrastructure is built upon the API of the service you subscribe to you're OK? That music or game you downloaded that's dependent upon a DRM server is always usable even if the company shutters? If the unimaginable happens and Amazon goes down in smoke you're still good right? The U.S. enters WWIII and the data centers hosted in Europe become inaccessible to the companies dependent upon them. The Chinese government plants some trojans on that lovely data center hosting your R&D. So many personal and corporate computing devices should not be rendered worthless by external factors "in the cloud".

Re:To hell with the cloud

[afgam28]

Why is this irrelevant? SaaS encompases applications that require Internet access (e.g. email and databases), and applications that haven't traditionally required it (e.g. word processors and storage).

Re:To hell with the cloud

[Anonymous Coward]

haha, yah, different cloud than i work in, we host quickbooks... :)

cloud computing best word since blast processing

[laserdog]

what does it mean WHO CARES?????? me so wtf is cloud computing and how does it work

Weather

[StripedCow]

I don't want clouds! I want sun!

Is the trademark "Sun" free already?

NFC is a buzzword?

[Thumper_SVX]

Near Field Communication is a buzzword? And here I thought that unlike "cloud", NFC referred to an actual technology with very specific implementation and use cases. I will join the choir here wondering why the technical knowledge of editors and submitters seems to be dropping precipitously.

Wearable Personal Private Cloud

[bitflusher]

I personally back up everything in my Wearable Personal Private Cloud (WPPC). The WPPC is amazing It can hold many GB's, is cheap for limited space but with a bit of money you can get a lot more space! The transfer speeds are amazing and I can access all my could data wherever I am as long as there is a computer, because it is the cloud it is always with me. It also has enhanced security an privacy features because it can be taken offline whenever I like it to be. In the old days the WPPC would be called a USB stick but that is just old! I hate it when the cloud label gets stuck on everything. A simple cluster with two nodes is now a cloud. Heck even a single synology nas with no reduncancy is now a cloud http://www.synology.com/support/video_your_cloud.php?lang=us In the old days it would be port forwarding not it is a cloud.

Meanwhile Sir. Nogivesashit could care less

[Anonymous Coward]

True story.

Is anyone else enjoying the irony here

[PhamNguyen]

How is using we searches (or whatever metric they use) to track words, and construct some unscientific "theory" about their rise and fall, not itself part of the current hype for this sort of thing. Who remembers Memetics?

Gartner uses the report to monitor the rise, maturity and decline of certain terms and concepts, the better for corporate strategists and planners to predict how things will trend over the next few months or years. As part of the report, Gartner's analysts have built a Hype Cycle which positions technologies on a graph tracing their rise, overexposure, inevitable fall, and eventual rehabilitation as quiet, productive, well-integrated, thoroughly un-buzz-worthy technologies. Right now, Gartner views hybrid cloud computing, Big Data, crowdsourcing, and the 'Internet of Things' as on the rise, while private cloud computing, social analytics and the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) phenomenon are coasting at the Peak of Inflated Expectations."

buzzword

[slick7]

"Ride the hype wave, wipe-out!

weather

[jessicasmith23]

Well, I think so. It should be updated as well as upgraded for better appearance. it should also be organized.