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Cloud Computing – A Really Poor Name? Yes, according to the 3 CEOs: HP, IBM & Oracle

By annie shum | November 6, 2009

http://tinyurl.com/yanggxz

Sure, Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd and IBM CEO Sam Palmisano may not greee on most things, but on this they agree: while cloud computing has tremendous potential as a technological approach, the term itself is a lousy name. We’re with you, guys, but please: whatever the new name is, no more three-letter acronyms, okay? As we discussed last week, Hurd’s bullish on the concept but can’t stand the name: “I don’t like the term—no, I don’t like the term.”

IBM’s Palmisano earlier this week referred to the cloud-computing name as “an unfortunate name,” and shared his preference for the alternative of “highly virtualized infrastructure” in this context:

“”Cloud computing—what we’re really talking about is ‘highly virtualized infrastructure’—it’s also just beginning, but it’s an unfortunate name.

“There’s tons of hype in the beginning and then the industry starts to ascertain what’s real and what’s not, and that’s where we are now. It’s starting to take off on the consumer side, which has been very visible, but we don’t play there, we’re an enterprise company—but even with all the talk and rhetoric about cloud starting to slow down, the real thing behind the name is starting to ramp up . . . .”

And since Oracle’s Larry Ellison has certainly made fun of the cloud-computing name on more than one occasion, it looks like we have a consensus. So the next question is, what should this computing platform with the high potential but the “lousy” name be called?

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