The Cloud is old, yet new. I have a good friend who was smart enough to join AWS in 2006, close to the beginning. Hey, that was almost exactly 8 years ago. So, Cloud is old. But, it is still new in IT years for many even though it is popular. What is behind the popularity of the cloud? OMG you could go on and on, and it is so confusing.

How about this? The Cloud is the Fast Food Experience of IT.

: of, relating to, or specializing in food that can be prepared and served quickly <a fast–food restaurant>

2

: designed for ready availability, use, or consumption and with little consideration given to quality or significance <fast–food TV programming>

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Fast food is the term given to food that is prepared and served very quickly, first popularized in the 1950s in the United States. While any meal with low preparation time can be considered fast food, typically the term refers to food sold in a restaurant or store with preheated or precooked ingredients, and served to the customer in a packaged form for take-out/take-away.

IT used to be the in-house experience. Collecting requirements. Asking everyone what they want to eat. Prepare a menu. Discuss the menu. Make a shopping list. Go to store. Put everything away for cooking later. Time goes on. Get ready to prepare meal. Realize you forgot something. Go back to the store. Running out time. Start cooking. Family sees what you are cooking. Makes new input. Ewwhh, I don’t want to eat that. Make a decision modify the meal plan or tell your family you will eat what is on the table. You finish cooking. But family is not all home. Food sits in the oven, staying warm, degrading the quality and look. Eventually everyone gets together to eat, and no one talks about how good the food is. Clean the kitchen, put away the left overs. Fast Food seems so much easier and the family gets what they want. Never mind the cost, the quality is not as good or better depending on how good of a cook you are, the sugar, the fat and salt content are beyond your comprehension. As your families health deteriorate and they gain many more pounds, they get used to fast food.

Fast Food is part of everyone’s diet. The Cloud is too.