All these fancy names in cloud computing—like IaaS, PaaS, CaaS, FaaS and more—can make your head spin. It seems like in tech, if you give something a name, you’re instantly seen as an expert. But do we really need to name every little thing?
Think about RESTful APIs for example — basically a method for apps/services to communicate with each other. But it's become this big thing with its own special name. Same goes for these cloud models. I’ve been using Google Cloud for years, deploying containers using GKE, creating Compute Engine instances, deploying GCP functions and never bothered by this jargon. To me, it’s just Google’s tools. Whether it’s machines or apps, I use what works without needing a glossary. This overload of cloud "models" feels like a barrier, like I’m supposed to be fluent in this secret language to belong.
Communication matters, sure but all these XaaS terms just create more confusion, especially when the lines between them blur in practice. I think the only practical approach is to understand what a cloud provider offers and use the cloud services that suit your needs without delving deep into the specific terminology. Let’s balance clarity and this unnecessary naming chaos.
The need for clear communication and the overwhelming proliferation of terms is contradictory and highlights a challenge in the tech industry. Finding a balance between naming things for clarity and avoiding unnecessary jargon is an ongoing struggle and is not helped by the competing companies making these terms into buzzwords and marketing tools, overshadowing their original purpose of facilitating understanding.
Isn't it strange? We say naming is hard and yet we name everything.
