The cloud
noun
A friendly name for computing that happens in physical data centres. The interface may feel weightless; the servers, electricity, cooling and water are not.
Also known as cloud computing
The cloud is somebody else’s building.
It is a useful name for computing delivered over the internet, and an excellent name if the aim is to make warehouses full of servers sound as though they drift above us without plumbing. They do not. The servers use electricity, produce heat and need cooling. The building sits in a town. Somebody pays the water bill.
The phrase matters in this book because digital convenience is easy to imagine as weightless. A prompt disappears into a clean little box and an answer returns. The physical system behind it remains out of sight, which is not the same as absent. The cloud has a roof, a power connection and neighbours.