Dilbert on Cloud Computing

I know an account manager at a major telco. He talks regularly about how his bosses tell him to push "the Cloud" and that "the Cloud is the future", and other silly nonsense like that.<p>It's definitely a fad that non-technical people don't understand. They've been told it will save them hundreds of thousands of dollars (virtualized servers) and make data instantly accessible from any computer-machine. They mostly heard they would save a lot of money and told everyone to push it.<p>Funny how buzzwords hypnotize.

Every company has a vastly different definition of cloud computing. By far the worst I've seen is Microsoft's "Delayed at the Airport" commercial. She remote desktop's into her home computer and watches a video - is this really the Cloud?

Same comic on the fast link: <a href="http://dilbert.com/fast/2011-01-07/" rel="nofollow">http://dilbert.com/fast/2011-01-07/</a><p>(Dilbert has a "fast" link at <a href="http://dilbert.com/fast/" rel="nofollow">http://dilbert.com/fast/</a> to load just the comics without all the extra stuff)

A recruiter friend asked me how much a company should pay a cloud developer. I had no idea what to say.

Cloud seems to be the ultimate Rorschach Test, both in the real world and the IT world. (From <a href="http://blog.labslice.com/2010/09/wispy-cloud.html" rel="nofollow">http://blog.labslice.com/2010/09/wispy-cloud.html</a>).

Reminds me of the Penny Arcade comic: <a href="http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/3/25/" rel="nofollow">http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/3/25/</a><p>"<i>God</i>. Let me break this down for you. It's <i>server-side</i>. It's like, over here? Servers."

"philosopher and technologist": ACM offers a paper on "Ontological approach toward cybersecurity in cloud computing". Evidently the PHB is more on target than usual.

It causes me a great deal of stress when I hear non seasoned developers discussing "the cloud". Even talking about it now is annoying me. The people with the loudest opinions are usually managers who have only a basic concept of what it is and what it might be good for.

Like water under the hot sun. your software turns into vaporware. thats what cloud means right now, Its magic.<p>at least when some congressmen calls your service provider.<p>The Orb - Fluffy clouds <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHixChYgGRI" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHixChYgGRI</a> Sums it up.