Terms become popular because they're useful, but useful to whom?
The purpose of the original coinage of the word "cloud" was to obfuscate that you really meant "someone else's computer". It gives a nice warm, fuzzy decentralised impression - clouds are natural and ubiquitous! No one owns them! If it's in "the cloud" (note the definite article) then it's safe in the very fabric of the network, right?
Nope. It's in Larry and Sergey's basement. Not decentralised at all. Just somewhere else.
The proper term is "server", "datacenter", or "network", depending on what you're actually trying not to say.
The purpose of the original coinage of the word "cloud" was to obfuscate that you really meant "someone else's computer". It gives a nice warm, fuzzy decentralised impression - clouds are natural and ubiquitous! No one owns them! If it's in "the cloud" (note the definite article) then it's safe in the very fabric of the network, right?
Nope. It's in Larry and Sergey's basement. Not decentralised at all. Just somewhere else.
The proper term is "server", "datacenter", or "network", depending on what you're actually trying not to say.