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edit: apparently it's Bill Baker of Microsoft who originated it: https://www.pistoncloud.com/2013/04/announcing-enterprise-openstack-version-2/ https://www.pist

edit: apparently it's Bill Baker of Microsoft who originated it: https://www.pistoncloud.com/2013/04/announcing-enterprise-openstack-version-2/ https://www.pistoncloud.com/2013/04/announcing-enterprise-op... Afaik the analogy was first used by Joshua McKenty of Piston Cloud '"The servers in today's data center are like puppies -- they've got names and when they get sick, everything grinds to a halt while you nurse them back to health," Joshua McKenty, co-founder of Piston Cloud, is quoted as saying in a recent company press release. "Piston Enterprise OpenStack is a system for managing your servers like cattle -- you number them, and when they get sick and you have to shoot them in the head, the herd can keep moving. It takes a family of three to care for a single puppy, but a few cowboys can drive tens of thousands of cows over great distances, all while drinking whiskey."'[1] [1] https://www.networkworld.com/news/2013/041113-servers-cows-puppies-268650.html https://www.networkworld.com/news/2013/041113-servers-cows-p...

nslater 13y ago
Haha, wow. Thanks for digging that up!
ArbitraryLimits 13y ago
Unlike the iPad, the iPhone, Dropbox, and "The Web," credit for this metaphor may fairly be given to David Gelertner. Although he applied it to naming files rather than servers. From http://www.edge.org/conversation/the-second-coming-a-manifesto http://www.edge.org/conversation/the-second-coming-a-manifes... (1999) > If you have three pet dogs, give them names. If you have 10,000 head of cattle, don't bother. Nowadays the idea of giving a name to every file on your computer is ridiculous. For what it's worth he was also the first to use the metaphor of a cloud, although in his sense the cloud represented your personal data and it drifted to follow you, casting a shadow over pavestones representing computers, as opposed to the usual sense of the cloud being an amorphous body of computers.
- Dylan16807 13y ago
  That's not really the same metaphor. The naming is almost incidental, it's the individual effort going into each item that matters. Most of my 'pet' files are nameless, but they are individually pampered and treated and difficult to recreate.

nslater 13y ago

Haha, wow. Thanks for digging that up!

ArbitraryLimits 13y ago

Unlike the iPad, the iPhone, Dropbox, and "The Web," credit for this metaphor may fairly be given to David Gelertner. Although he applied it to naming files rather than servers. From http://www.edge.org/conversation/the-second-coming-a-manifesto http://www.edge.org/conversation/the-second-coming-a-manifes... (1999) > If you have three pet dogs, give them names. If you have 10,000 head of cattle, don't bother. Nowadays the idea of giving a name to every file on your computer is ridiculous. For what it's worth he was also the first to use the metaphor of a cloud, although in his sense the cloud represented your personal data and it drifted to follow you, casting a shadow over pavestones representing computers, as opposed to the usual sense of the cloud being an amorphous body of computers.

Dylan16807 13y ago
That's not really the same metaphor. The naming is almost incidental, it's the individual effort going into each item that matters. Most of my 'pet' files are nameless, but they are individually pampered and treated and difficult to recreate.