OMG it's Virtual!

Information Superhighway! Information Superhighway! Information Superhighway!

You know, back in the early 90′s when this term was coined and Al Gore invented the Internet, I came across a Popular Science article talking about the Information Superhighway.  Being a novice IT guy back then (ipx/spx configs anyone?) – I was very interested in the idea that the information superhighway would fill our TVs and computers with data and entertainment.  For a brief time, my career ambition was to be one of the future technicians who would connect homes and businesses to this awe-inspiring information superhighway and I’d be basking in the limelight of being on the ground floor.

So Al Gore didn’t invent the Internet (nor did he claim to) but he *did* introduce the term back in the 70′s.  A couple presidencies later, during the Clinton/Gore administration, a plan was introduced referencing the same name.  This plan never really got off the ground, mostly due to the popularity and boom of the World Wide Web.  So the term Information Superhighway was attached to the web and lucky for all of us, the name sort of faded into the background.  But before it did – I had heard it so much that it’s mere mention made me cringe.  It’s overuse grated on my nerves so much that I missed out on that career with Time Warner installing cable modems.  Lucky for me I guess.

What does this have to do with virtualization?  Well … a little deja vu for me.  All the hubbub about Cloud is hitting me in the same way as the Information Superhighway did almost 20 years ago.  Marketers are rushing to include the cloud in their offerings, companies re-branding products to “cloudify” regardless of how much spin-doctoring is required.  Google cloud-washing and you will see what I mean.  I hear “cloud” now and I just can’t suppress a little hidden eye-roll.  I will not deny the importance of what is happening in the industry with the “as a service” innovations but the meaning of cloud is just all over the place.

Cloud! Cloud! Cloud! A Not so Authoritative Look at What “Cloud” Terms Mean is a an interesting blog entry I stumbled across recently.  It had me thinking about the things I experienced back in the days of the all-new Information Superhighway and what is happening with the cloud today.  What are the chances that the marketers loosen their grip on the cloud term in the next year or two??

I’ve started a number of blogs but I never know how to kick them off in style. I’m not sure there is any way – I just need to bury them in content I suppose.  If anyone has something they’d like to submit, feel free!