"there is no cloud, it's just someone else's computer"

lore

cloudops culture

The sticker-slogan half-truth: physically accurate, architecturally misleading. The cloud's substance is elasticity, APIs, managed services, and global footprint - properties no single computer has.

Popularized as a sticker by Chris Watterston (2015) and adopted as both joke and critique; useful as a reminder about trust and location, wrong as a description of what you are buying.

Disputed / commonly mistold A popular version of this story is inaccurate - see the note above.

Also known as: there is no cloud

Sources

  • Chris Watterston - 'There is no cloud' sticker (2015)

All glossary entries