Hot Buzzwords are Part of Computing Supplier Marketing War

Hot buzzwords always seem to have been part of the sales and marketing spin for computing-related companies and their products. Today’s effort is to label everything “AI.” But “com” was the rage around the turn of the century and “personal” was key in the 1980s. “Cloud” and “virtualized” are of more-recent vintage. “Zero trust” and “low code/no code” have been heard over the last few years. 

Era/Period	Buzzword(s)	Context / Typical Usage
1980s–Early 1990s	Personal Computer (PC), GUI, Multimedia	Launch of consumer computing, graphical interfaces
Late 1990s	.COM, E-commerce, Web Applications, ASP	Internet boom, online business, dynamic web development
Early 2000s	Distributed Computing, XML, COM, CORBA	System integration, interoperability, enterprise IT
Mid-2000s	SOA, Web Services, Agile, Best Practices	Modular software, service integration, project mgmt
Late 2000s	Cloud Computing, Virtualization, SaaS	Move to hosted services, scalable infrastructure
Early 2010s	Big Data, Mobile-First, BYOD, DevOps	Data analytics, mobile devices, agile IT operations
Mid-2010s	IoT (Internet of Things), Machine Learning, Blockchain, Chatbots	Connected devices, automation, decentralized ledgers
Late 2010s	AI (Artificial Intelligence), Digital Transformation, Edge Computing, AR/VR	Automation, business change, real-time processing, immersive tech
Early 2020s	Metaverse, Quantum Computing, Zero Trust, Multi-Cloud, Serverless, Low Code/No Code	Virtual worlds, advanced computing, security, cloud strategies, simplified dev
Mid-2020s (2024–2025)	Generative AI, Cloud-Native, FinOps, Hybrid Cloud, Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM), Anywhere Operations	AI content creation, optimized cloud, financial ops, security, remote work