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  1. Science & Tech
30 August 2012

Half of Americans think cloud computing is affected by stormy weather

The cloud ≠ a cloud.

By Alex Hern

 

You may remember the story of the Galway councillor who thought that cloud computing would only work in areas with lots of rain. The Telegraph reported it, for instance:

The Independent councillor said that the Government should be doing more to harness clean industries for the Connemara area and he named wind energy and cloud computing as two obvious examples.

“Connemara in particular could become a centre of excellence for wind energy harnessing, as it is open to the Atlantic,” he said.

“Also in terms of cloud computing, we have dense thick fog for nine months of the year, because of the mountain heights and the ability to harness this cloud power, there is tremendous scope for cloud computing to become a major employer in this region.”

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Sadly, the story was a hoax. The councillors named in the story don’t actually exist. (Strangely, the Telegraph removed the write-up from their site.)

But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t people who do think like that. Matt Yglesias notes a press release from Citrix which reveals that:

The survey of more than 1,000 American adults was conducted in August 2012 by Wakefield Research and shows that while the cloud is widely used, it is still misunderstood. For example, 51 percent of respondents, including a majority of Millennials, believe stormy weather can interfere with cloud computing.

Cloud Computing: Not Actually Anything To Do With Clouds

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