Cloud

What Does Cloud Mean?

The cloud is a general metaphor that is used to refer to the Internet. Initially, the Internet was seen as a distributed network and then, with the invention of the World Wide Web, as a tangle of interlinked media. As the Internet continued to grow in both size and the range of activities it encompassed, it came to be known as "the cloud."

Advertisements

Techopedia Explains Cloud

The use of the word cloud may be an attempt to capture both the size and nebulous nature of the Internet. Where the Web was an upgrade that made the Internet much more user friendly by adding media to the text-file based sharing it already used, Web 2.0 and virtual servers allow people to run applications, create content, engage in commerce and carry out thousands of other activities that go well beyond media consumption. Calling all of this confused potential “the cloud” might not be the most elegant solution, but it stuck.

Advertisements

Related Terms

Latest Cloud Computing Terms

Related Reading

Margaret Rouse

Margaret Rouse is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical, business audience. Over the past twenty years her explanations have appeared on TechTarget websites and she's been cited as an authority in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine and Discovery Magazine.Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages. If you have a suggestion for a new definition or how to improve a technical explanation, please email Margaret or contact her…