Selling the Cloud Sublime - To the Cloud: Big Data in a Turbulent World - page 105

a global security risk and mitigate, at least in a small way, the fears that, as
one commentator explained, “if China stops playing by Davos rules, then
the golden years of the World Economic Forum will be over” (Rachman
2013). Huawei's work with the WEF helped the company build legiti-
macy as attacks on its actions continued. In 2013 it took another step by
becoming a partner with CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear
Research), providing cloud storage for the world's major particle-physics
center, no minor task since the lab requires twenty-ive petabytes of data
each year. As an analyst concluded, “CERN has now put the company
back on the 'nice list'” (Harpreet 2013).
The content of the report is important because it gives concentrated
and repeated attention to three themes. First, it promotes the vision of
information technology in all of its forms as the key to economic growth
and to the overall success of the global economy. Second, it identiies
cloud computing as the leading edge of IT development and the essen-
tial ingredient for organizational success, especially in business. Third,
the report insists that the primary challenge to the effective use of cloud
computing is the adoption of technical standards that would enable the
seamless convergence of machines and devices responsible for storage,
processing, distribution, and use. Almost as important is the form that
the content of reports like this takes. To reach as broad an audience of
decision and opinion makers as possible, the report is written in a clear
style with practically no jargon. Moreover, it is replete with the kinds of
summary text, igures, and tables that both simplify arguments and add
the legitimating weight of quantitative data. Finally, it contains numer-
ous lists that rank order nations according to how well they embrace
information technology—for instance, readiness to enter the world of
hyperconnectivity. These appeal to those who might only have the time
to lip through the report, but who would be interested to locate and
compare where their own country appears on a list. Although certainly
more nuanced than a commercial ad or a short blog post, and with more
legitimacy than a commissioned private research report, the document is
careful to offer the clarity and simplicity that advances the promotional
project. Unlike a journalistic or scholarly account, which can often read like
a contested terrain of clashing views, the report is singular in its positive,
promotional message about IT and the cloud. Where nuance exists, it is
only to highlight the technical hurdles that leave some question marks