Cloudy notions still floating around!

If I ever needed a reminder of what a marketing genius Steve Jobs was, I got it today thanks to cloud computing.

This year's Gitex is focusing heavily on cloud computing, which first became a buzzword about three years ago. Ever since then, journalists have been trying — and generally failing — to find a simple way to explain what it is. Things haven't got any easier either. Now we have the public clouds, community clouds, hybrid clouds and private clouds. Data and companies should be up in the clouds. Security companies are even suggesting a layer of digital ozone to protect the clouds. It's enough to make you pray for sunshine!

But I was curious about just how much the average person really knows about cloud computing, so I walked around Gitex asking random people to explain it to me.

The most common response can be paraphrased as "Cloud Computing? What's that?" To be fair, I wasn't asking these question at the Microsoft or Symantec booths. I expect them to know. If they didn't, this would be a very different story, so I generally spoke to anyone who wasn't wearing a suit.

Still, I was a little surprised to be at a major tech fair focusing on cloud computing and finding so many people who knew nothing about it. At one point, I was 0-9. It wasn't until I strolled over to the Shift booth I found someone who knew something about the cloud. Roman Lopukh, an exhibitor from Ukraine, didn't know everything, but he knew enough. When I found him, he was leaning on a Stormtrooper helmet that was wearing headphones. Then I asked my question.

"Isn't that like the iCloud?"

OK, sure, but what does that mean?

"That means you can take anything anywhere."

OK, it may not be the most accurate answer on the planet, but it's a lot better than a description that attempts to make a coherent sentence by combining words like virtualisation, networking or — horror — data access.

This insight all comes from the Apple iCloud, which apparently will be the technology that finally brings the reality of cloud computing home to most people. You upload something once, and then you download it somewhere else. Simple.

It's the same problem we had with MP3 players. Remember those? They were big, bulky things with about ten buttons that nerds used to listen to their mp3 files. Then Apple came along and — poof — MP3 players became these slick little devices that played music. It was brilliant marketing based on simplicity.

Now, I know there will be a lot of people who will complain Roman's definition just isn't enough. These are probably people who also like to use the word synergy and show PowerPoint presentations. OK, so I'll tweak his definition a little. The cloud is technology that allows us to access anything digital anywhere we go. Anything else, like who can access it or how much security it has, are details for the engineers to figure out. But it's something that makes Steve Job's passing this month all the more painful. He wasn't just the head of the world's biggest technology company. He was Steve Jobs, jargon-killer. And he will be missed.