Cloud Computing, Destined to be the Next Big IT Cliche!

You know, in my years in the industry I first heard this term at University around 2006 in one of my many programming papers. Cloud Computing... Huh, thats a pretty cool term I thought to myself...

Well someone else did too, because now its all over the show; being used by companies left right and center to sell their products through the indication that there is some new technology behind this 'special cloud computing' where in actual fact there is not. It is just a term, with no more meaning than if someone had come up with another word for 'Browser'.

Cloud Computing, as it was explained to me by a my Lecturer, with a PHd at University; "outsourcing and decentralization of processing power". This is technically a definition of Distributed Computing, Virtual Private Networking.

An excellent example of 'Distributed Computing' is the Stanford Universities, Folding@Home application (or I believe they call it 'Life' on the PS3); which essentially takes what ever processing power your Home PC, or PS3 is un-used at the time and use this to processing Protein Folding scenarios.

Client Side programming, which has been around for decades, is also a form of 'Cloud Computing' in the sense that you are 'Outsourcing' and 'Decentralizing' a particular process out to your Users or (Clients).

So in conclusion, I am steering away from the term Cloud Computing due to the confusion it is bound to generate over the coming years; and its wide overuse in the IT industry; to specifically represent a single, or subset of technologies; which may be more expensive but virtually no different than the service you are receiving now.

True Cloud Computing would technically mean something getting CHEAPER due to the outsourcing/decentralization and reduced resposibility to administer the processors doing the work.

I wont even bother linking you to a Definition of Cloud Computing; because the question is; who's definition is actually correct? Every one seems to want to Narrow it down, and the simple fact is; Cloud Computing is a GENERAL term used to represent a wide range of technology (not neccessarily new) and add a new 'marketing twist' to help sell, and perhaps justify a higher price what could be the same product or service thats been around for years.