A recent survey has unearthed an interesting/borderline depressing fact — one in three people think cloud computing has to do with literal clouds. That’s right: many of us think we need an umbrella to access SkyDrive.
You’d think this was the kind of statement your mother said at the dinner table and then you texted to all your friends for a laugh. But, really, people are apparently scratching their heads on this one. Fifty-one per cent of those polled think bad weather messes with the cloud, and another 54 per cent think they don’t even use the cloud ever. Not when they buy a Kindle book and definitely not when they’re adding photos to DropBox. Not that these people are using DropBox. Then there’s the 14 per cent that have totally lied in job interviews about being very familiar with the cloud.
In retrospect it makes this Microsoft ad series pretty hilarious. Theoretically this is something that everyone could simply Google to clear up. Or you could just listen to Ballmer explain it.
The results of the survey are funny to the savvier set, but in all seriousness, learning what the cloud is and how it affects you is very important. Because the cloud is where your digital life is. And in many cases your digital life and your life life are one in the same. Companies like Apple, Google, Microsoft, and DropBox can change their features and policies flippantly and it could leave you totally screwed. You should know who to blame when things go bad. And it’s not the weatherman.
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