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by TeMPOraL 3724 days ago
Yeah. The problem is, "cloud" now means both of the things you described and then some. Probably the best definition corresponding to present usage of this word would be "not on localhost".

(Because yeah, if I host a Dropbox clone on my Raspberry Pi sitting on the wardrobe, I have my files "in the cloud" now.)

We need a new word for automated, dynamic allocation/deallocation/management of remote instances for various services. Something that would differentiate it from buying a VPS.

1 comments

Agreed. Amongst non-technical people, 'in the cloud' just means 'somewhere on the internet'. For example, if I backup my iPhone onto iTunes on my laptop then that's not on the cloud, but if backup to iCloud then it's on the cloud.

I guess it's frustrating that cloud means quite different things depending on the context, but I guess that's true of a lot of language.