Over-thinking the Cloud

Many of you have probably spent a few days or possibly even a few weeks recently, lying on your back staring at the sky. With any luck there was just a sea of never ending blueness that made you relaxed and happy to be at the beach/pool/lake/mountain top or wherever your vacation dreams reside. However I suspect that during this period of unrelenting bliss, a few clouds showed up that made you think about the future of networking computing…unless that was just me..

With all the talk of cloud computing, when you actually look at clouds you will notice that the typical cloud that is used to depict the “Cloud” is usually a sizeable puffy one, fairly neatly formed and oval-ish. However, when you look at real clouds you will notice that clouds vary as much as people. No two clouds are alike. They all exhibit different personalities and traits.

During our relaxed state, the most welcome form of high-level cloud is not puffy at all, in fact, known as “Cirrus” clouds they are usually very thin and often wispy. Typically found at heights greater than 20,000 feet Cirrus clouds are composed of ice crystals that originate from the freezing of super-cooled water droplets (I looked that up…). What we like about Cirrus clouds is that they generally occur in fair weather and don’t threaten to disturb our dreamy state of relaxation.

Those large,  puffy “Internet” clouds, also known as Cumulus (yep…the ones that start to look like rabbits and puppies after we stare at them for a while) tend to be mid to low level clouds that turn a gray color when they become “Cumulonimbus”. This is because they are reaching their capacity and are expected to be overloaded soon. The sight of a large looming cumulonimbus will motivate us to start rolling up the beach towel and head to the hotel for an early happy hour. However, their slightly less impressive half-brothers “Stratocumulus” that generally appear as a low, lumpy layer of clouds with breaks of clear sky in between generally make us hold off on the exit strategy but do have a tendency to ruin the mood. As you can see the Cloud world is very rich and diverse.

So, what is the point of all this? Well, as more and more companies talk about their “Cloud” computing strategy, I think we should be asking ourselves exactly what type of cloud they are building and is the term “Cloud” really meaningful as the Internet develops.  Is their cloud something that is large and looming that, as it grows, will eventually ruin our day, or something simple and un-intrusive that is far away and not likely to have a big impact at all on our lives? It’s actually probably neither.

Unfortunately, as someone who starts to pace relentlessly when he loses Blackberry connectivity for even 5 minutes, I think we really need to develop an all-encompassing analogy that depicts something that will entirely envelop us and completely change the way we think about computing, the web, the phone, networks, technology, vacations, clouds and everything else.

I propose that network diagrams should no longer show the Internet as a “Cloud” off in the corner with lines coming out of it -  they should start with a musty gray undeterminable background with all the stuff sitting right in the middle of the grayness, connecting not by clear lines, but via some ethereal mist-like form. I further suggest we no-longer use the term “Cloud” computing, but start using “Fog” computing. Simple, brutal, cold and in your face.

That way we will be much more honest with the public at large and all the confusion will be completely eliminated.

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