Tech pundits and practitioners alike have spilled lots of ink to hype cloud computing. They'll encourage you to think of it as IT infrastructure on demand--like plugging into the power grid to get electricity, or turning on a faucet to get water, but getting raw computing power instead. To boot, you'll get access to storage capacity and software-based services--and it can scale infinitely, proponents point out.
If this all sounds too good to be true--like so much cold fusion, the now-debunked tabletop nuclear fusion reactor in a bottle--don't be fooled. This time, getting more for less is real. And with the economy of its currently parlous condition, businesses have never needed cloud computing more.
Source: Business Week