Building on conceptual metaphor theory, this article investigates and argues the importance of the utility metaphor in discussions shaping information technologies. The results reveal that the utility metaphor has been evoked in different shapes and forms continually since the late fifties relating, for example, to concepts such as Time-sharing, Computer networks, The computer grid, Utility computing, and – the contemporary metaphor – Cloud computing.

The study focuses on the implications of affordances identified in Google Apps for Education (GAFE), by strategic staff within a Swedish school organisation, with responsibility for schools in around 30 municipalities. A complex picture emerged, where GAFE was perceived both as a neutral, well-functioning tool and as a means of educating in partly new ways. Furthermore, the study shows that GAFE, despite its characteristic of being a non-generative appliance, still can be used in creative ways. The implementation of cloud technology, such as GAFE, endorses a tunnel-vision affordance that downgrades more nuanced perceptions of the different technological, economical, and ethical aspects of the technology. Studying GAFE, different tensions of power emerge: Google vs. the school, IT professionals vs. teachers, management vs. teachers, teachers vs. pupils, Google vs. pupils.

The aim of this study is to show how Google’s business model is concealed within Google Apps forEducation (GAFE) as well as how such a bundle is perceived within one educational organisation,consisting of approximately 30 schools. The study consists of two parts: 1) a rhetorical analysisof Google policy documents and 2) an interview study in a Swedish educational organisation.By making an implicit demarcation between the two concepts (your) ‘data’ and (collected)‘information’ Google can disguise the presence of a business model for online marketing and, atthe same time, simulate the practices and ethics of a free public service institution. This makesit problematic for Swedish schools to implement Google Apps for Education, bearing in mindGoogle’s surveillance practices for making profits on pupil’s algorithmic identities. From a frontend viewpoint of Google Apps for Education, the advantages of the services are evident to theusers, and emerge in the study, whereas back end strategies are relatively hidden.

Purpose: The article explores persuasive rhetoric in the legitimization of cloud computing by critically scrutinizing metaphorical devices utilized by leaders of the cloud industry. This article introduces a critical approach to the promotion of cloud technology.

Design/methodology/approach: 13 video clips from YouTube.com were analysed, containing presentations and talks delivered by leaders of Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon – four of the most influential companies within the IT industry, sometimes referred to as GAFA. With the help of conceptual metaphor theory, often-repeated metaphors for cloud technologies reveal what properties were promoted and hidden.

Findings: GAFA mainly used the same persuasive metaphors to promote cloud computing’s positive aspects. Potentially negative or complex issues were mostly avoided. Implicitly, GAFA exerts power through the extensive dissemination of their metaphors and these are used in order to negotiate and overcome doubts about cloud computing and related technologies.

Originality/value: This is the first study aimed at understanding the persuasive rhetoric of GAFA, seen as a uniform object of study, in the legitimization of cloud computing.