The Internet grown up, or What is the Cloud?

By now surely you've heard the cloud this, or the cloud that. I'm going to tell you in a few sentences what "The Cloud" is. The cloud is nothing more than the internet and the services that live within it.

Yes, The Cloud is THE internet. Whenever you're buying a new good or service and the fact that it is on "The Cloud" is the most notorious or emphasized feature, make sure you know the actual practical benefits.

Many companies are touting "The Cloud" as this new magical service that will change your life, make you lots of money and save puppies. It isn't, it's just the internet.

The Cloud is really just a term used to explain all of the internet's services in one word or term. It isn't bad, but make sure you know what you're buying into when you buy a new "in the cloud" service. The reason why the term is good is that it simplifies explaining how something works.

We don't need to explain DNS, or the physical layer, or even the network layer; for it all just works. All the different layers of the OSI model are no longer necessary to know. Only programmers, network security professionals and geeks like me will still care about these things. The reality is though that the consumer doesn't care.

This is how we can tell that the internet has grown up. People are able to create new things, share them online, and even succeed at doing this without a bit of knowledge about what TCP/IP is.

I personally wished that more people would learn the basics, the things that make their computer or their phone work. But it's okay, I'm happy even if they only use these tools without really knowing how they work. I usually start my car and drive away without a second thought as to how ignition works, or how the pistons that capture energy and how this energy makes it to my wheel and sends me on my way.

For 98% of any group of people that use a technology, this is how technology works and should work. The Cloud is here, enjoy it but don't forget that it is nothing more than a bunch of interconnected servers giving you access to data. Much like a car is just a bunch of steel, aluminum and rubber taking you from point a to point b.