Technology can drive new concepts. But trying to coin a new term is hard and takes time, which is a problem when you just want someone to "get it". (I know 'cause in the early 90's I coined the phrase "appliance" and it took the industry 2 years to get around to using it). So rather than coin a new phrase, sometimes it is much easier to use a well understood concept and just add one new wrinkle to it. The good science fiction writers do this all the time.
Here's a case in point. Back in 99 I saw that the Internet could actually be a useful vehicle for file storage. But it wasn't until last year when Amazon came out with S3 that you could actually do something useful. But still pretty primitive. Again, how do you convey this concept?
Today I read a blog post by Tony who is in the storage business. There is a well defined storage method called Network Attached Storage (NAS), which provides high level intelligence to storage you just jack in anywhere into your network. This post and the fact I just installed an Iomega device yesterday got me thinking. So what if you took the fundamentals of NAS, but instead of a network, you had the Internet? Viola! Internet Attached Storage. So people in the business "get it", but instead of a physical device, you have virtual devices ( courtesy of Amazon). But you still need a good management layer on it which is what my new company does.
We'll see it this catches on. But if you have a new product or service which looks like something understood, but radically different in one key component, try changing out one word and see if it makes sense. It's a lot easier way to get your concept across.
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