What is Cloud Computing? 10 Defining Points

This appears to be a strange question to ask given that you are undoubtedly familiar with the term "cloud." However, based on some recent talks, I believe there is a considerable lot of foggy thinking regarding cloud computing.

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So here's the gist of what the cloud is (in my opinion) in a series of bullet points:
The term "cloud computing" is currently being used in marketing. That's why I'm writing this: to separate the usage of Cloud Computing as a marketing term from the use of Cloud Computing as an architectural concept. Marketing concepts do not have to be precisely defined. They are used, then abused, then heavily exploited, and eventually, as their bandwagon comes to a halt, they are tossed onto the pitiful heap of shattered buzz words. That is what happened to terms like "eBusiness," "Web Services," "On Demand," and so on. Prior to the onset of the recession, Cloud Computing was a relatively normal marketing term. This is changing as the cost of cloud computing becomes more appealing to the IT audience. As a result, cloud has become the buzzword du jour.
Cloud computing is NOT the same as SaaS. (Software As A Service). I bring this up because some critics have treated these two concepts as though they were interchangeable. SaaS is a healthy term. SaaS refers to outsourced software that you can access directly. Although you may not realise it, your electronic banking capacity is SaaS; you simply do not pay for it directly. As a result, electronic banking is similar to Zoho or Google Apps. However, no matter how far you extend the notion, electronic banking is not Cloud Computing.
Cloud computing isn't about trying to be like Google. It appears that the first enthusiasm for cloud computing as a technology strategy was motivated by Google envy. Google was doing something unusual by constructing massive data centres to support its operations. Google's organisation was clearly incredibly efficient, and other CIOs wondered whether they might mimic Google. Actually, there was no chance because Google's business was defined by only two unusual transactions: web searches and ad placement. Google created a massively parallel operation employing computer servers and switches constructed by themselves within an architecture optimised for that task. You can't replicate that unless you have a small variety but a big number of transactions, like certain social networking sites do. As one might anticipate, numerous social networking sites have attempted to imitate Google.
The Cloud Is All About Technology Stacks Cloud computing is all about technology stacks, just like the ISP industry is all about technology stacks. In general, ISPs provide a consistent service to the countless websites they serve by utilising a uniform technology stack, most typically the LAMP (Linux Apache, MySQL, PHP) stack. This means that management effort is minimal because everyone is running the same application (a website) with the same technology (LAMP), and if customers do have issues, they are usually the same issues that show up time and again.
Cloud Computing Is About Scale Economies The only thing that everyone seems to agree on when it comes to Cloud Computing is that it is designed for scale and is hosted on resources that are unique from the typical IT network. In other words, there is an architectural endeavour to construct for scale within "the cloud." The majority of cloud products will be predicated on scalability. The truth is that if you aim to build a very large data centre and manage its utilisation so that the majority of the workloads are fairly similar, if not identical, you will realise enormous economies of scale. You will then be able to offer the service at a lower cost than the customer's in-house costs for running the application. The greater the number of clients, the greater the cost benefit.
Cloud computing is not the same as outsourcing. A conventional corporate data centre is not and will never be a cloud. Workloads are mixed, platforms are mixed, and the entire technology stack is mixed. That means you can't convert the entire data centre to a cloud operation. You can, however, outsource it.
Do Cloud Computing Standards Exist? Not really, or perhaps more accurately, "not yet." In general, cloud computing infrastructure is constructed on servers that use virtualization technologies to provide effective resource usage and often adhere to open standards and largely use open source software for economic reasons. The Open Cloud Consortium (OCC) is an organisation founded by a consortium of institutions that promotes open frameworks that would allow clouds hosted by different enterprises to work together effortlessly.
Is It Possible To Have An Internal Cloud? Again, not really, or perhaps more accurately, "not yet." It makes sense for enterprises to create "domains" within their own networks based on cloud-type designs, especially if they have applications that will need to scale over time. If cloud standards existed, such domains may be considered Internal Clouds. They would serve as staging areas for potentially migrating internal applications to the cloud, or if the business has its own software that it plans to sell as a service, such a domain may serve as the basis for offering that service.
Is Cloud Computing Related to Web 2.0? Absolutely nothing. You can, however, make the link if you like. Many Web 2.0 websites, mainly social networking sites, have had to scale up considerably as their user population has swelled into the millions. As a result, they've had to adopt highly scalable structures (or die). Because they have such structures, they may be able to provide some services to consumers in the style of cloud computing.
Do Cloud Services Provide Guaranteed Service Levels? The answer is "yes," or it should be, and it most certainly will be in the future. We must eliminate free services, such as Yahoo Mail and many Google services, which can be defined as Cloud Computing from most perspectives, because a free service will never offer assurances (even if it makes an excellent living from adverts.) However, service levels and the nature of the service itself will ultimately define Cloud Computing from the user's perspective. If Cloud Computing Services are adequately defined in this manner, it is easy to compare the cost of offering a similar capability from your own data centre - as long as the Cloud Computing provider is transparent in disclosing facts about the technology that it deploys.