Who came up with this name for a bunch of computers? Why do I have this ridiculous image in my head of servers floating above actual clouds even as I know that this is far from reality?
A brief foray into Wikipedia tells me that it probably came from those cloud-like bubbles in diagrams that stood for the stuff in between the parts you diagrammed in detail.
Somehow this became a way of talking about network connections that happened like magic. It’s really another way of having a “black box” where things happen, but it’s a much lighter, fluffier, expansive version of that.
I vaguely remember the first time I heard a reference to “the cloud” and I remember it sounding really odd.
Now everything is “on the Cloud” or “in the Cloud” – were not sure if it has substance or not. Is it a shelf, or a container?
I think we like the image of the cloud because it makes us feel like our data is up high, out of reach.
You can’t help but feel like it is safer there than it would be down here on the ground in ugly buildings. Connected to a lot of other ugly buildings. Where it actually is.
I like to think of the Cloud as a floating target that anyone can see. Do I really want to put my stuff there? Hmm.