What do the Cloud and Twitter have in common?

June 13, 2011 - PRLog -- I was reading a article the other day that confirmed for me what I had always suspected.  Twitter is like a b-list celebrity.  Famous for being, well, famous.  No other reason.

According to this article, Twitter has way more media visibility than actual use or relevance.  Surprised?  Me, not so much.  After all, how can a service that’s no more important as a circus side-show really expect to be relevant?  Answer: It can’t.  Unless or until Twitter starts providing a valuable service or delivers a serious marketing return for it’s corporate adopters, it will shortly be in the dust bin of the Internet, along with the BeOS WebPad Tablet.

While I’m on the subject of media over hype (that’s what Twitter and the Cloud have in common, BTW), let’s debunk the latest in a long history of exciting “new” technologies and service models:  ”The Cloud”.  Since I love acronyms, let’s call it TC for the rest of this article.

TC is a marketers dream!  Not only does it sound somehow magical, it’s also impossible to define.  While Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Apple are touting TC as the second coming of Jesus (or Mohammad, or the King of Karma, or whoever is in fashion), a local data center operator here in Ann Arbor is claiming to have one.  They have two locations, count them, two.  That’s more like a humid day, not a cloud.  Still, they’re offering to teach you everything you need to know about TC and, I’m sure, offer you their services so you can take advantage of this new miracle of the Internet.  Don’t get me wrong, they’re a fine company, doing what fine companies do.  Sell their stuff.

Funny, weren’t all these guys talking about the last few miracles too?  What ever happened to the Application Service Provider model (ASP)?  How about the Software As A Service model (SaaS)?  What, you say?  ASP & SaaS are remarkably similar to TC?  No, you must be mistaken – or on drugs!  TC is soooo not like those things.  SaaS is where your applications and data are stored in a data center somewhere and accessible everywhere over the Internet.  And ASP is where your applications and data are stored in a data center somewhere and accessible everywhere over the Internet.  And TC, of course (read: You Ninny), is where your applications and data are stored in a data center somewhere and accessible everywhere over the Internet.  You are so wrong, it’s funny.  Ha.

Seems like every couple of years, someone comes up with a new name for the same ol same ol, and with it, a brand new marketing campaign.

Sure, there are real differences in all of these technologies, but really?  ”The Cloud”? if you just want media attention, why don’t you call it something cool like “BJ from Outer Space” or, to be more gender neutral, “Hi Tech Happy Ending”.

I’ll end with something that will show my age.  Does anyone remember “Time Share Computing”?   Look it up.  You’ll have to go back to the 1970′s and read about the HP 9000 computer.  It allowed you to do something revolutionary. It could store your applications and data in a data center somewhere and make it accessible everywhere over a phone line.  How cool was that!

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