Scanning the news the other day and what do we see but a reminder of the many acronyms in the cloud computing world. Again, it’s a vendor with a made up name. This time it’s Verizon with an update to its “Computing as a Service” or CaaS for short.
Acronyms abound in the cloud computing world – perhaps more than any other technology in play today. They are emerging at a rapid clip. It’s understandable as cloud computing is so new and there are so many ways for it to be applied. But it’s also frustrating.
Verizon’s service looks solid. But the name creates more confusion. Get this: Verizon also offers “Everything as a Service.” That takes the cake, or should we say… muffin!
It makes the whole concept of cloud computing a bit confusing as you try to understand what really is available. It becomes an issue of “what is it now?”
This week’s other imaginative term – Virtualization as a Service – from Salesforce.com and VmWare. It’s the center issue for our Weekly Poll: What does Virtualization as a Service Really Mean?
Dave Geada, vice president of marketing at StrataScale, had this to say about what it means:
I think [new names are] a lot of unwarranted marketing hype (and that means something coming from a marketer). Knowing very little about the announcement, I would guess that the two are partnering in order to provide a platform where Force.com partners can deploy integrated solutions to a VMware enabled Salesforce cloud. In essence these providers would have a one-stop-shop for delivering their solutions to market instead of having to rely on an assortment of hosting partners to deploy their solutions.
A joint platform initiative like the one I just described would also benefit enterprises who could host their own customized VM appliances on this cloud and easily integrate them with their Salesforce implementations and Force.com applications. In doing so VMware would be able to access a segment of the market where it’s been having some difficulties (i.e. SMB ISVs) and Salesforce would benefit from providing a more comprehensive solution to their partner ecosystem.
If I’m right about this (and I reserve the right to be wrong), isn’t that a much more compelling story than the mumbo-jumbo we’re dealing with now? Cloud providers should demonstrate some more restraint in throwing the “cloud” label around and turn the conversation back around to the value that their providing to customers and partners. And high profile providers like Salesforce and VMware should be setting the example.
We expect these ancronyms will filter out over time. Or perhaps VaaS and CaaS will stand the test of time. It’s just too early to tell.
Until then, how about a muffin?
