Selling the Cloud Sublime - To the Cloud: Big Data in a Turbulent World - page 122

topic on how cloud computing will change everything (Erl, Puttini, and
Mahmood 2013).
Cloud Expo helped advance my understanding of cloud-computing
technology, big-data methodology, and the leading companies that pro-
duce both. But it also underscored the role of large conventions in the
promotion of cloud computing and big data. The conference and others
like it are promotional because they insist on the absolute necessity of
adopting cloud computing. They are also promotional for what they do
not address, primarily the pressures that the cloud imposes on the built
environment and on the electrical grid, the tendency to concentrate power
in a few large companies, and the challenge to employment arising from
big changes in the international division of labor. Data security and pri-
vacy attract a bit of attention, but largely as a threat to cloud adoption.
The forms of cloud promotion that this chapter has considered—
commercial advertising, blog posts and social media, promotional research
reports, lobbying, and trade conferences—do not exhaust the major
examples. They cover a great deal of ground, but there are other topic
areas, including government promotion. In the United States, the 2010
federal government chief information oficer's report hailing the cloud and
ordering agencies to adopt cloud computing was one of the irst in a series
of government promotional steps. In addition, there was a 2011 National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) report that promised major
cost savings for government agencies moving their information technology
functions to the cloud (NIST 2011). Then in 2012 the National Science
Foundation joined the chorus supporting the NIST report and committed
the government to carry out research on all aspects of cloud computing
(National Science Foundation 2012).
All of the promotion and the hyperbole are important to mobilize sup-
port, which, as the history of communication technology demonstrates,
can be ickle, as people continuously lock to the next new thing. So it
is essential for those who envision the cloud as an engine to drive infor-
mational capitalism to continually promote its revolutionary capabilities. 6
Promotion is also essential to protect the cloud from criticisms about its
challenges, problems, and even dangers. The next two chapters address
these and, in doing so, raise questions about the wisdom of moving to
the cloud.