I've looked at cloud computing from both sides now, and still somehow, its the cloud's illusions I recall - no one really knows how to sell the "benefits" of cloud computing at all...

(My apologies to Judy Collins for hijacking her lyrics)...

Yes, techies are frothing at the mouth over cloud computing, but having attended two non-IT business seminars on it, few if any outside the techie-sphere are buying into it.

I have yet to see anyone who can remotely sell the "benefits" against the potential huge cost, major overhaul, and maintenance of this old, rehashed, renamed idea.

As one "C" level professional stated at one of these conferences (to a Microsoft marketing pro)... "...and what will you guys come up with next? Take a 5 & 1/4 floppy disk, give it a new name like "magic data saucer", and try to sell us that???"

Whether actually good, bad or just plain ugly, no one seems to be able to sell the cloud computing concept in the real world because it may very well be nothing more than a white elephant running around in repackaged skin.