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Subject:Re: Cloud? Firewall? From:Susan Fowler <sfowler -at- EJV -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 10 Jan 1995 12:34:54 EST
The "cloud" metaphor was probably picked up from the telecommunications field,
where the public telecommunications system is drawn as a cloud on diagrams. The
public network is so big and complicated, and uses so many resources that you
can't draw it without making a mess of lines, and even then you can't fit them
all in. So, they invented the cloud symbol.
A "firewall" is a security system that prevents outsiders from penetrating your
company network (by isolating the communications server somehow) but still
allows communication between people inside and outside. I don't know the
mechanics of it--I'd be curious to hear more.
