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back to article Turnbull should spare us all airline-magazine-grade cloud hype

Australia's Communications minister Malcolm Turnbull on Monday labelled those who oppose use of the public cloud “box-huggers” and suggested such behaviour is bad because it ties organisations to an outmoded and expensive way of doing IT. “There is more resistance to cloud in government that anywhere else,” he said, and blamed …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Why not "the" cloud?

    “There is more resistance to cloud in government that [sic] anywhere else…”

    “...virtually nothing has been spent on cloud since 2010...”

    Why does the article refer to "cloud" and not "the cloud"? Is this jargon or a grammatical mistake?

    We also read that "Turnbull... labelled those who oppose use of the public cloud…"

    So which is it to be?

    (To me, it sounds like an affectation, like when rag traders talk about "this jean" instead of "these jeans" when selling you denim breeks.)

    0 0 Reply
    1. Cliff
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      Re: Why not "the" cloud?

      Don't get to caught up in semantics, it's all just marketing guff for 'offsite server' anyway.

      10 1 Reply
      1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge
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        Re: Why not "the" cloud?

        "t's all just marketing guff for 'offsite server'"

        Or someone else's computer rented out at a rate sufficient to make someone else's profit.

        8 0 Reply
      2. Anonymous Coward
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        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Why not "the" cloud?

        If that's seriously all you've seen in cloud then you are either sadly behind the times or you are looking at the wrong CSP's.

        0 0 Reply
    2. Mark 65
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      Re: Why not "the" cloud?

      What Turnbull(shit) is missing here is that what is really needed is a Government operated cloud (or datacentre in old World terms) whereby any department can spin up required capacity. An AWS for tax-burdens as it were. The thought of using private sector cloud for Government work leads me to think:

      1. Privacy out the window

      2. Zero control over what is really going on

      3. Taxpayer robbed blind.

      What Governments like Australia need is a centralised IT resource that they all chip in for (and can therefore afford to hire people that know what they're doing), that is completely under their control, and that can provide the basic operation of the elastic compute capacity. Provide infrastructure services, backups etc, sort out proper data segregation, correct public facing server settings etc and in a scalable way. But no, most Governments and their departments reinvent the wheel very badly then shout cloud from the rooftops.

      3 0 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
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        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Why not "the" cloud?

        We have 2 x all-of-government 'clouds' in New Zealand and they are both eye-wateringly more expensive than on-premise solutions.

        You know, I really want to stand in front of the Board and say 'please give me way more money to give you what you've got - or maybe worse than what you've got'

        I know there are some bells and whistles but frankly, not needed and certainly not at the price.

        0 0 Reply
  2. Mage Silver badge

    He's mad

    He obviously hasn't a clue the Cloud is just other people's boxes since like the 1960s + leased lines. Or he owns a service provider!

    6 0 Reply
    1. Captain DaFt
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      Re: He's mad

      "Or he owns a service provider!"

      Or is owned by a service provider, he is a politician, after all.

      3 0 Reply
  3. Mark 85

    He's missing the obvious then.

    Logic says that if the cloudy types can't meet the government criteria and all the agencies have their own IT and bit barns then they should merge their all their IT into 2 bit barns. 1 primary and 1 backup. Unless of course, he's got a friendly lobbyist from the cloud providers picking up his lunch tab... or more.

    Yeah, I know that's a pretty tough thing, possibly impossible, to do with all the legacy apps and data as well as different hardware, but hey, he simplified the problem so let's make the answer simple for him. He obviously hasn't a clue anyway.

    1 0 Reply
    1. Simon Sharwood, Reg APAC Editor (Written by Reg staff)
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      Re: He's missing the obvious then.

      I don't think Malcolm Turnbull has a problem paying for his lunches.

      3 0 Reply
      1. dan1980
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        Re: He's missing the obvious then.

        @Simon

        Doesn't mean he doesn't enjoy a free one all the same. Just look at the Obeids and Macdonalds and their network of mates with handshake deals. The fact that they are by any measure very well off doesn't mean they don't only means they want more.

        You think Tony Abbott couldn't afford to pay for his daughter's tuition if he was so inclined, or that he really needed the $3k he claimed as expenses to do a charity ride - his own one?

        But no, there is little chance of Malcolm hurting regardless of what happens.

        3 0 Reply
        1. P. Lee
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          Re: He's missing the obvious then.

          >But no, there is little chance of Malcolm hurting regardless of what happens.

          Unless those cloud providers promised to fund his political life in return for government going with them rather than keeping things in-house.

          1 0 Reply
      2. anonymousI
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        Re: He's missing the obvious then.

        No, he has much higher standards.

        Like those able to be provided by the Hollywood studios and big media groups, for example.

        0 0 Reply
  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    An accidentally-truthful sentence

    "Turnbull's very keen on two things: reducing waste and digital government service delivery."

    Taking a look at everything that this LNP (mis)government does, they very clearly want to reduce government service delivery too. Ths is because they seem to think that the role of government is to vote in laws that cement privilege and rewards their donors, and that people who claim to need services from the government are, in fact, waste.

    2 0 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      Re: An accidentally-truthful sentence

      They also seem to understand the concept of living within your means - something labor and their even simpler cousins, the so-called 'greens', fail to comprehend. The hand out mentality is alive and well in Oz.

      1 2 Reply
  5. earplugs

    Cloud service delivery looks rather hamstrung by a slow NBN

    Isn't that the main point, not the footnote? If you could tap into the cloud at 1Gbps for free, box huggers could throw away their kit.

    0 0 Reply

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