[ih] Geek Terminology (was Re: Resource sharing)

[Larry Sheldon]

On 12/23/2012 3:48 PM, John Day wrote:

> Even the nebulous use of "cloud" rather than what it is a "data
> center."  It sounds so much more reassuring that my stuff is just out
> there in the cloud, rather stored with someone else in their data
> center.  (Even that is a euphemism).

Of late I have been wondering:  Has that term's definition morphed 
without me noticing, or did I use it incorrectly back in the day?

When I was active in networkish stuff in the late 20th century I "cloud" 
was a device (, metaphorical) for talking about entities that could 
communicate without much caring how the details in the cloud were arranged.

[My computer, my building, my campus, my company] was network connected 
to the cloud so it could communicate with other connected entities that 
also speak {IP, IPX, AppleTalk].

The notion of "data center" never occurred to me.

That term by the way is an example of the vocabulary limitation.  A long 
time ago in my environment, a "computer center" was a building that 
housed a few computers--typically between one and three 7074s and 3 or 4 
times as many 1401s and 360/30s.

Then, when the technology improved and there was only one or two 
computer (an 1110 and a 360/30 to support it) they became "data centers).

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