back to article Intel lobs pork buns at world gone Google

As Intel unveiled the Open Data Center Alliance on Wednesday morning, crowing that this consortium of "global IT leaders" shared its vision for an "open cloud" future and proclaiming the arrival of "Cloud Independence Day," it seemed odd that the alliance didn't actually include a cloud company. The best you can say is that …

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  1. Is it me?
    Grenade

    Presumably

    This means Open as in using the Intel propriety chip architecture, rather than open as in any chip, any OS, and App.

    So not really that open.

  2. Magnus_Pym

    A cloud in your own server room?

    Wouldn't that just be a damp patch?

  3. Bilgepipe
    Happy

    Mmmmm

    Mmmmmm, dim sum.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Boffin

      Dim Sum

      Yes, but specifically Cha siu baau!

      Dim Sum is 'steam cooked individual portion' and covers a wide range of foods.

  4. fearnothing

    Cloud computing - the next water supply?

    Is it just me or does anyone else see a future where cloud computing is simply another public utility, like water, electricity and gas? Billed by the number of processing cycles used, or data throughput or some other more obscure measurement? Google is already moving its way into the utility market in a slightly different manner. Maybe we'll see some kind of merging of our broadband service where our connection package includes time on the cloud, like mobile phone minutes.

    That's the reason the future might look dull, folks - because it's cloudy.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Flame

      Cloud computing - the next water supply?

      Lets hope not.

      Locked into a vendor with amongst the highest charges, shit service and forever trying to con you into buying services you don't need by using scare tactics?

      Business & providers may want it. I don't.

      Buy once, keep forever.

      1. BorkedAgain
        Troll

        Think of it like banking.

        You pay your bank to look after your money for you because they're better at doing so securely at a reasonable price point than you can be yourself. If you don't like their charges or service, you're always able to withdraw your money (it's yours, after all) and deposit it elsewhere.

        Same goes if you substitute "Cloud Service Provider" for "Bank" and "Data" for "Money", broadly speaking. It's an analogy, so it's not perfect, but the parallels are good and help explain the concepts well. And, just like getting access to your money from the bank is taken for granted, having access to your data from your service provider is obviously a requirement.

        Of course, I'm assuming that you DO operate a bank account. Most people recognise their value, at least.

        1. LaeMing
          Stop

          @BorkedAgain

          You pay for a bank to keep your money? My financial institution pays me for the use of my money.

    2. usbac Silver badge

      Already here

      "Is it just me or does anyone else see a future where cloud computing is simply another public utility, like water, electricity and gas? Billed by the number of processing cycles used, or data throughput or some other more obscure measurement?"

      That model already exists. Take a look at GoGrid. They bill based on "Outbound Data Transfer" and "by the RAM Hour". Whatever a RAM Hour is?

  5. Cris E
    Grenade

    Wait, go back...

    So you want to build a lot of private clouds and the standards are there to make them interoperable? Hmmm. OK, we build local clouds and then pass their data through non-standard public clouds to reach other local clouds. Should not the publics be part of the standard then, or do they already have a mechanism for passing data in and out? Well they're already in business, so some such mechanism must exist, which means that's probably not what's really needed here. What else could cause Intel to raise and group like this? Hmmm. I wonder what they could be up to? I mean, really the only thing coming here is a standard that could guide a lot of huge server customers to choose OH I GET IT NOW.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Circles, squares, arrows, and pork buns

    Somebody in Marketing will be asked to not go beyond their duty of making PowerPoint slides.

  7. PJ 3
    WTF?

    Interesting, and tacky

    I think this whole thing is very curious.

    1. A hardware company trying to create a customer/hardware/software alliance. What are they afraid of? Sparc? Cmos? AMD? There is ALWAYS a self-serving reason for these types of things and with Intel operating in a paranoid fashion, what is their real motivation? Time will tell.

    2. Hand written picket signs and 2 pork bun containers? That was actually someones "idea" ! THAT was pathetic and no amount of spin makes it othwerwise. It also shows this was done in haste. Why move so quickly you look like amateurish fools on the street. There was no characteristic Intel polish in that street scene and my guess is that upstairs it was a little questionable too.

    3. The website is kind of nice and you can see the call for standards, but there is not much there, there. I'm sure it will be more populated over time, but again, a weak effort for Intel.

    So, my guess is the number crunchers recently figured out that a wholesale move to mobile and cheaper desktop chips will kill a whole bunch of desktop revenue. So, they need to somehow make Intel server chips the standard for cloud computing to offset that revenue loss. It went something like this, " Holy SH%T ! We need to do something right NOW to try and lock in the whole cloud revenue thing before AMD, Oracle or IBM cut down our share !!!! " " I know, let's make an Alliance and declare us the standard hardware for the cloud. That'll do it. We can get a few employees to wear blue t shirts and carry small hand written picket signs and we'll give out pork buns on the street." .... Brilliant ...

  8. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Pork Buns

    Presumably Cha siu baau of the Dim Sum variety...

    Rather than the other type of buns..

  9. GeorgeTuk
    WTF?

    That is the lamest marketing idea for a long time...

    ...it all looks so amateurish for such a professional company like Intel.

    And why launch something apparently so crucial with a few lame "protestors" and pork buns?

    Oh dear...

  10. D. M
    Pint

    Pork buns

    There is no standard cha siu baau. The taste could be similar in some degree (eg. they are all sweet) but there is no standard. What is better is greatly depending on person's opinion.

    I highly doubt Intel version of cha siu baau is better than my local version (to me, I do not like fatty version, so I don't usually order the version I don't know about).

  11. heyrick Silver badge

    Is this for real?

    Or did a few bored employees down the sake and make a minor commotion? I mean, OMG, the signs are HANDWRITTEN! The protesters numbered in their... hell, even "dozens" is too big a number.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    Sad to say...

    I work at said company and I'm actually embarrassed by this.

    Oh well, back to the chip mines.

  13. lokanadam
    Happy

    enterprise customers dictate cloud roadmap and interoperability

    cloud is all about enterprise acceptance, with reliability, security and lockin issues at stake.

    no wonder the alliance is supported by the appropriate kind.

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