Ask HN: How to Explain the Cloud to Nondevs?

1 points by ss108 3y ago ↗ HN

I'm in biglaw rn and may need to explain to lawyers why there is nbd about using normal cloud-based SaaS software as opposed to the usual garbage dotcom era software they use, where the company seemingly runs their own servers sonewhere.

What would you guys say under such circumstances? As a dev who never coded pre-cloud, I'm not even sure I know the diff well enough to fully explain. It's mostly about devs being able to easily scale horizontally and vertically via an easy protocol, as opposed to provisioning each machine, right? And sharing machine space between customers who don't know each other?

2 comments

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jleyank 3y ago ↗

The cloud is a (large) set of computers located somewhere else that can be used to run a program on your behalf. This lets you rent computer time rather than purchasing and maintaining them yourself. It is an old idea in new packaging that is far more convenient to use.

soueuls 3y ago ↗

There is a book called "Explain the Cloud Like I'm 10" whose sole purpose is exactly that.