On the misapplication of terms

I just returned from a week hanging out in Vegas at a conference. I was struck with how much sensory overload there can be in one five day period, with the majority of it being with the overloading of terms inside the conference. In short, my nemesis appears to have taken over the technology world: Cloud.

I've written before that "cloud" is a term that is not only misused, but also abused. To my way of thinking, this is a shame, because the term itself is perfectly valid. It is the uses to which people/vendors/suppliers apply it that are the problem.

I have been in the technology industry since 1996, and I have never seen such a wide adoption of a term to mean so many different things. What everyone seems to be dancing around is that "Cloud", if you adopt it in the terms of Infrastructure- or Platform- or Software- As A Service (IAAS, PAAS and SAAS, respectively), it is nothing more than virtualization of the services being consumed, and the standardization of the technology and processes used to deliver it. (See my apology to Arthur C Clarke for full details). But it is a term that is applied almost generically to any product to try and drive sales.

 "Cloud" is not a "What". It is not even a "Why". It's a "How". So to the vendors (and the customers whom enable them): JUST STOP. Stop with labeling everything "Cloud" or "Cloud Ready".

You're not fooling anyone, you know.