The clouded world of naming cloud startups
February 1st, 2011 | Published in General | 9 Comments
We break from our regular programming for a guest post. The naming of cloud startups has always befuddled me. To chime in with some opinion on this delicate topic here’s Lucy Schiller of A Hundred Monkeys, a naming firm in San Francisco.
So let’s say you need a name for your up and coming cloud computing company. Going by most of the names out there right now, it looks like you’re going to write “cloud” on a piece of paper and then rack your brain for some sort of word to sit before or after it. Maybe you’ll start with numbers or meaningless modifiers (see Cloud9, Cloudera, icloud, Cloudant), move on to slightly more relevant options (Cloudscale, Cloudworks, CloudShare), get frustrated, try out a few stronger sounding words (Cloudkick, Whamcloud), and land, finally, in the territory of completely unrelated modifiers (Panda Cloud, CloudBerry). You’ll eventually find an available URL and subsequently try to convince yourself that naming your company “ChowderCloud” sounds like an okay idea. At least it kind of rolls off the tongue, right?
“Cloud” doesn’t even look like a real word by the end of the massive list of companies using it in their name. So what’s next if your friends talk you out of ChowderCloud? Earth, Wind and Fire? A more general theme of atmosphere? Surrounded by crowded airspace with names like Cumulux, OpenNebula, and Skytap, you decide to turn to something more grounded (see StrikeIron IronCloud, for instance).
While the cloud metaphor is way overplayed, the general concept remains an interesting one with a lot of room for imaginative names. Reservoir, Manymoon, Amazon’s Beanstalk, and StrikeIron (minus the IronCloud) all tap into the basic idea behind cloud computing without going the obvious cloudy route. From a functional standpoint, these less literal names also don’t pigeonhole you if you ever try to expand your business into new territory or shift your focus.
So while names like icloud and Couldworks are immediately relevant, they also immediately make you one in a million. How are potential clients supposed to tell everyone apart at first glance? They all sound like they do basically the same thing. And with more and more businesses switching to cloud infrastructure by the day, having a name that shows potential clients why you’re different can really make a big difference.
So let’s hope you decide to use your imagination. Every cloud is different. Ditch Chowdercloud, Cloudiddly, TroutCloud and Cloudsmack. Think about how you’re different from all the others, and start naming from there.
February 2nd, 2011 at 1:44 am (#)
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Trevor Hinson, Hiro Kishimoto. Hiro Kishimoto said: [cloud] The clouded world of naming cloud startups http://dlvr.it/Fb2m0 [...]
February 2nd, 2011 at 8:46 pm (#)
We named Standing Cloud (www.standingcloud.com) after a type of cloud that is common in Colorado, formed when a standing wave of airflow passes over a mountain or a ridge; the cloud is formed at top of the airflow wave and does not move. There are several different sub-types of standing clouds, including lenticular, chinook, and others.
Metaphorically, it is intended to capture the idea that your application will operate the same regardless of which cloud provider it is on and (to the extent possible) which version of the technology stack it is using.
February 6th, 2011 at 12:19 pm (#)
Lucy, thank you for highlighting this particular pet peeve of mine. It often appears to me that some companies veer from sheer stupidity to near illiteracy to get their startups out of the blocks. I would if Stone, Dorsey and Evans would still call it Twitter if they could turn back the clock.
February 11th, 2011 at 7:00 am (#)
[...] Of All Clouds carries a thought provoking article on naming virtual companies a subject dear to my heart as it seems to me that some companies veer from the downright bloody [...]
March 2nd, 2011 at 9:47 pm (#)
You have presented a very interesting argument with name a cloud based company in todays business space. Not that long ago I was looking for a domain with “cloud” in it and I will agree that the pickings are very slim. I think if you get creative enough there are ways around it you just have to think outside the box.
March 27th, 2011 at 4:48 pm (#)
I picked – http://www.iamondemand.com as it is al about making your applications on demand and not on premise.
September 3rd, 2011 at 6:03 pm (#)
Well I have selected keyword based domain – CloudComputingTechie as I am writing as a user’s perspective.
January 31st, 2012 at 8:54 pm (#)
Brand Spankin’ New Network!
As you’re reading this, our network engineers are preparing the final gear we’re going to be deploying, which will replace nearly our entire network. Yes, you read that correctly, our entire network. When we first launched, we deployed industry standard Cisco 6500s with Sup 720 3bxls, and they worked great for about a year. However, after experiencing rapid growth, they just could not keep up with demand.
We gave our network team a goal of designing a bullet-proof network from top to bottom, and we can confidently say they accomplished that goal! Every single layer of the network is getting replaced. The Edge and Core networks each have a pair of top-of-the-line carrier class Brocade XMRs. These routing monsters support up to 2 billion packets per second with a non-blocking capacity of 3.2 Tbps. We are deploying a redundant pair of the XMRs on both our edge and our core network. These are not only powerful enough to last us for years, but they also allow us fantastic scalability to expand if we see unexpected growth again.
We are also deploying multiple redundant pairs of 10Gbit aggregation switches and brand new top-of-rack switches (brocade FCXs). Each rack will be redundantly connected to the aggregation network by 2x10Gbit connections.
We are extremely excited to share the new network with all of you – it has been a long time coming. You will start seeing maintenance windows open up for us to make these changes. We have designed these windows to be as unobtrusive as possible, and your feedback has guided our maintenance schedules.
New Servers: You will not believe these prices
How about some new servers to run on that new network? In late February/early March we will be launching two new servers- E3s! These new Sandy Bridge servers have redundant power supplies, and are lightning fast!
We dare you to find these specs for this price anywhere else.
Intel Xeon – Quad Core – E3-1230 (4x 3.6 GHz)
8 GB of RAM
500GB Enterprise SATA
3200GB Bandwidth
Dual Power supplies, 2 HDD Bays
Price: $98.00/mo
Intel Xeon – Quad Core – E3-1270 (4x 3.8 GHz)
16 GB of RAM
500GB Enterprise SATA
3200GB Bandwidth
Dual Power supplies, 2 HDD Bays
Price: $128.00 (we are not kidding)
We’ll send another letter out just before these go on the website- keep your eyes peeled.
Secured Servers Outlet
As we launch new server lines, we will slowly phase out older ones. But not to worry, these servers will go to the all new Secured Servers Outlet where you will be able to get them on a first come first serve basis. Inventory will not be replenished on these Outlet servers.
Solid State Drives
You asked and we delivered! You will soon be able to add SSDs on all of our servers (even outlet servers). While we are still in final testing stages, everything is looking good for the upcoming release of the brand new Samsung 830 Series Solid State drives. We will keep you updated as the testing completes with these drives.
New Website
Another big change you are going to see is our new website! As a part of the Phoenix NAP family of products, we are redesigning our website to better fit in the mix. Phoenix NAP’s goal is to provide a full suite of Infrastructure-as-a-Service options to our customers, from dedicated servers, to colocation, to the brand new public cloud (if you still haven’t tried out Secured Cloud, let us know and we will set up an account with free credits to try it out).
Feedback
Every month, our client experience committee meets to discuss the feedback we receive from all of you. We use the feedback to determine what investments we are going to make, what new products we are going to offer, and what we need to offer you a better overall experience.
February 10th, 2012 at 2:08 pm (#)
This cloud computing is seriously amazing. When you think about how much society has progressed in the last number of years, it is amazing really. There is all these cloud computing sites that are popping up such as http://www.dropbox.com, https://www.mypdv.com, http://www.box.com amongst many many others…I wonder where we are going with this in the future??!!