Revisiting "Cloud Computing": What is it exactly?

Earlier this month I posted Cloud Computing": What is it exactly? and have gotten a large volume of comments. Many of them came from suppliers of cloud computing products or services. A few came from those using cloud computing as part of their overall IT strategy.

Here's the summary of one that came from the good folks over at CA.

The term "cloud computing" can indeed be misused and/or over-used, since people often use it to refer to services that have simply been made available via the Internet.  However, there are several legitimate differentiators between "cloud computing" and non-cloud Internet-based services.  These include:

• The ability to allocate and de-allocate resources (including hardware, software, and storage) from a pool of resources on the fly, as required
• The ability to only charge customers for what they actually use
• The ability to provide customers with a high level of automated self-service so that they can turn capacity up and down as their needs change

These are not just technical differentiators.  They are also strong value differentiators that make cloud computing a very compelling, very different approach to how IT is run.  The approach can help businesses under pressure use IT more effectively, adapt more quickly and precisely to what the business needs,  while spending budget dollars much more intelligently.

If you're interested in reading more of CA's thoughts on cloud computing, please visit their website.

Due to a disagreement between iCal and our hosted exchange environment, I missed an opportunity to speak with CA recently. I would have liked to hear more.