Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems used to call it “the big friggin’ web-tone switch” (“Web tone” being the digital successor to “ringtone”). IBM dubbed it “on-demand computing.” Others have called it “grid computing” and “software as a service.” The latest name is “cloud computing,” and it’s the hot new dance craze — er, tech trend — that’s sweeping the computing industry, generating so much hype that Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, speaking at a conference recently, felt moved to bash the whole cloud phenomenon as just a fad.
Today’s Forecast: Cloudy
November 3, 2008