Cloud Computing - evolution not revolution

I was reading Cloud computing: Love it or hate it? over on the ComputerWorld website this morning and thought that the article offered some interesting views on cloud computing. What seems clear to me is that the industry is still trying come to an agreement on what cloud computing is and is not.  This, of course, creates an environment that is confusing and, of course, open to a great deal of marketing hype.  In some cases, suppliers are describing just about any web-based application, development environment or development tool as being an example of cloud computing.

The Cloud Codex

Analysts at 451 Research and Tier1 Research gathered information on all of the then available cloud definitions and frameworks and then prepared the Cloud Codex. The Codex was published in July, was updated i November and another update is planned for 2010. We thought it would be best if we started our research based upon a common framework that defined cloud computing, the common ground upon which the overwhelming majority of cloud offerings are built, the pillars of technology that support cloud computing and the elements within each pillar.  If you're interested in reading that report, it is available here. Just click on "Download Your Free Cloud Codex Report" to obtain the report.

Snapshot analysis

Our demand-side research indicates that cloud computing is likely to evolve over time and that most organizations are going to look carefully at this approach. It is also rather unlikely that organizations of any size will abandon what they're doing now to adopt cloud-based approaches. What's far more likely is that trials of specific cloud-based applications will be done first and hybrid (internal/external) approaches will be deployed first.

Only in a few cases will organizations leap with both feet into the clouds and abandon what they're currently doing.

What's your organization thinking about cloud computing?