IN the Cloud or ON the Cloud That is the Question

By definition, IN makes the most sense here – your infrastructure or code or data is “enclosed or surrounded” by the cloud. And, to that effect, you put those items (“expressing motion”) IN the cloud.

ON just doesn’t quite work in this context. You can’t have “physical contact” with “the cloud” (or clouds in nature for that matter), so you can’t really put your data or architecture “on” it. Clouds have only visual surfaces (e.g water vapor) and there is practically no physicality to them. Wikipedia defines “clouds” as “a visible mass of water droplets or frozen ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere above the surface of a planetary body.” Water droplets or ice crystals are IN the atmosphere, not ON the atmosphere.

See where I’m going here?

Easy Examples

Let’s take a look at a couple of easy examples.

In the car
vs
On the car

This one is easy to visualize. “The suitcase is IN the car” means that it is physically inside of it. “The suitcase is ON the car” implies that it is on the roof or something like that and not actually within the physicality of the car. Think riding IN the car vs. riding ON the car. Very different images.

In the water
vs.
On the water

Think of a buoy. In this case, you could almost use either one. However it also depends on the context. “The buoy is IN the water” connotes physicality. “The buoy is ON the water” really should be written as “the buoy is floating ON the water” which implies transportation or motion. You could say “the buoy is floating IN the water” as well but to me that sounds like it is water-logged and not floating on top of it.

However, it gets a bit complicated.

In the bus/train
vs.
On the bus/train

Both of these examples practically imply the same thing. However, there are subtle nuances between them. “IN the train” means you are physically inside of it. “ON the train” implies that the train is in motion or will be in motion and it refers to transporting between two different points.

And you wouldn’t say the balloon is “on the air”, would you?

Wouldn’t you rather be part of something than sitting on top of it or outside of it? Put your applications IN the GoGrid Cloud versus ON it.

A lot of people talk about putting pictures or data in the cloud. If you say you are putting it ON the cloud, to me, it sounds like it could fall off and isn’t really secure.

What about network diagrams? Infrastructure architects show infrastructure inside of a cloud or connecting to a cloud that has infrastructure within it. They aren’t putting that infrastructure on top of a cloud graphic, are they?

What do YOU think?

Clouds are soft, expand and contract and are elastic. They are not physical in the sense that you can touch and feel them. Hard objects pass through them like airplanes or birds, so how with this lack of physicality can you put something actually “on” it.

But I want to know from you, how do you say it? “IN the cloud” or “ON the cloud”? Answer the poll below. Also, if you want to provide reasoning for your selection, please leave a comment.