Last month we asked you what you thought the most over-hyped cloud technology was.
What’s over-hyped and why? Read on.
1. NoSQL
I’m not surprised to see this take the top slot. NoSQL is a bit of a misnomer, and has led to some misunderstandings. Some vendors have tried to distance themselves from the label, though they also benefit from it. (Couchbase now seems to be embracing the NoSQL tag, though.)
Part of the problem is that there are several different technologies, ranging from key-value stores to graph databases that get lumped under this term – and many of these technologies are dedicated to solving very different problems. Still it’s a convenient and recognizable shorthand (I still use it all the time).
2. Software-as-a-Service
Not all SaaSes are created equal, and it sounds like readers are getting a bit tired of hearing about them. Still, given the success of certain services like Salesforce.com, WebEx and Google Apps I’m surprised this so high on the list.
3. Private Clouds
I figured private clouds would vie for the top spot with NoSQL. I personally don’t call into the “private clouds are just data centers” camp – there are some real architectural differences between a “cloud” data center and a normal data center – but I do think that it’s over-hyped, probably as a way to try to lure customers into hybrid or public clouds eventually. However, like all of the technologies listed here, I think there’s a real value here even if it is over-hyped.
4. Infrastructure-as-a-Service (tie)
I was surprised to see this make the list, considering how many companies are already taking advantage of Amazon Web Services and other IaaS hosts. But maybe the AWS outage set IaaS’ reputation back.
4. Platform-as-a-Service (tie)
I’m not surprised to see PaaS on the list, since so far PaaS has been more bark than bite. It’s something that just seems to be waiting to happen. The AWS outage knocked Heroku, one of the most visible PaaS providers, offline may have temporarily damaged the reputation of both IaaS and PaaS. However, with great apps like Simplenote (built on Google App Engine) and GetSatisfaction (built on Engine Yard) taking advantage of PaaS, maybe we’ll start to see more developers using these services. Our reader have, after all, expressed interest before.
The Least Hype
“Infrastructure apps” received the fewest number of votes, probably because it’s not that common a term. It was coined by Gary Orenstein. “NewSQL,” another new term, was low on the list as well. Of the various technologies that have actually received much press, “APIs and data-as-a-service” had the fewest votes.
