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"Firewall" is common terminology among IS/IT/MIS/whatever security-
conscious folks, and refers (usually) to a dedicated server of some
sort that prevents people from telnetting etc. into a company's
(or some other entities) host computers and wreaking havoc.
I think the notion of a "cloud" of computers came straight from the
fertile mind of the author. I've been reading PC Week, PC Magazine,
InfoWorld, PC World, Internet World, Information World, Byte, and a
half-dozen other various and sundry business- and personal computer
oriented pubs for years, and I've never heard of a "cloud" of computers.
By the same token, I've never heard of such a distinction made between
computers that are "behind a firewall" and those that aren't...the
only difference between the two is the presence of a firewall, which
can be erected or taken down at the whim of the system administrator,
and which there's really no way to detect from without (unless you
try breaking into the computer and find that you can't).
laughton%alloy -dot- bitnet -at- pucc -dot- princeton -dot- edu
