While this article is already a couple years old, someone recently reminded us about it. The Internet started out as a way to build resilient systems: systems that could deal with black-outs or the disappearing of a server. And if one went down, we’d just prop up another one.
When ‘Cloud’ was the newest buzz-word, we were told that it would give us flexibility: if we didn’t like our current provider, we could pick up and move to another – it’s all in the cloud anyway, whether it’s over here or over there, it doesn’t matter, right?
Sadly, the cloud has become a mist. A mist preventing us from seeing what could have been. It prevents us from venturing out because we can’t move from one provider to another.
Regardless of how you feel about it, “Power in the Age of the Feudal Internet” is an interesting read.