Sometime in the late 90's I sat in a meeting with a potential client to whom we were trying to sell software and services. The client kept asking; "Is your code done in .NET?" (at the time, it was not) and I noticed the client kept referring to .NET as though it were a programming language. Finally I asked directly; "Do you know what .NET is?" The client looked me in the eye and said; "No, not really, but I know I need it..." Naturally, this begged the question - If you dont know what something is, how do you know you need it? Answer = Marketing, of course.

As I travel these days and meet with clients and potential clients I am starting to see the same thing happening with the Cloud. Otherwise intelligent highly talented people dont really know what the Cloud is - other than what they've read or seen in marketing materials - and yet they are convinced they "need" it.

Like any new technology, I am still not a believer in the Cloud - maybe in a few years it will be more shaken out, more shaped - but right now I dont think its "there" yet, and we have yet to experience some of the potential disasters with the Cloud that to me, seem inevitable.

What is absolutely frightening though is the dynamic where marketing convinces otherwise smart people that they "need" something. All I can think of is Jim Jones, the maniacal 'preacher' who convinced some 900 people to drink the Kool-Aid and kill themselves.

No, I dont think the Cloud is going to kill anyone - but in an industry like ours, with so many highly hyped technologies that flopped, I sure wish people would take the time to learn whether or not they really "need" something - before simply announcing they need it because a marketing brochure told them they did.