cloud
"A Cloud is like a bottle full of rain, or sponges full of water ; God crushes these sponges, or unstops these bottles, and they are emptied ; and in emptying vanish ..."
"A cloud is like a sponge. A roof is like a hat. Treebark is like skin. A tire is like a shoe. A window is like an eye. Attributive metaphors Jellybeans are like balloons."
"A promise is a cloud; fulfillment is the rain." – Arab proverb. Keep in mind that for the Arabs, living in harsh desert lands, rain is the bringer of life and Allah's blessing, providing bounty and relief. The proverb is saying that a cloud is like a promise, offering hope of needed sustenance but not really giving it. If you want to be real, bring the rain.
rain is the actual. A cloud is the talk and the rain is the walk.
"A cloud is like a wayfarer-a traveler just passing through. A cloud doesn't stay, but it can do a lot to make the sky look beautiful when it's there."
"Clouds would not normally form unless there is dust or tiny particles in the atmosphere. A cloud is like the bubbles in a soft drink, but in reverse. A cloud is made up of small water droplets in air, whereas the bubbles are just gas droplets in a liquid. Both water droplets and bubbles require nucleation sites to form. "
"Why cloud computing is like renting an apartment - How is the cloud like an apartment building? Watch this cloud computing video to find out "
"Cloud computing, which itself is an analogy or possibly a metaphor wrapped in a euphemism, has seen more than its fair share of linguistic tricks applied to it over the years. Among the more frequent is the so-called "power grid" analogy. It goes like this, "Cloud computing is like plugging into a central power grid instead of generating your own power." OK, don't like that one? There's always the thermostat analogy, "
An article about the language used to describe renting an off site server vs. having owning and maintaining you own server on site.
Most data and processing is stored at a centralized site instead of local workstations.
I've always thought this phrase was weak. It's weak in the sense that it's supposed to help describe the process of people putting their information on severs that are away from their homes and businesses.
But why is this a cloud? Who came up with this phrase and decided to apply it to this type of business? It's a really crappy metaphor in the sense that it doesn't help to describe a complicated system.
METAMIA is a free database of analogy and metaphor. Anyone can contribute or search. The subject matter can be anything. Science is popular, but poetry is encouraged. The goal is to integrate our fluid muses with the stark literalism of a relational database. Metamia is like a girdle for your muses, a cognitive girdle.