Yes "cloud computing" is a vastly overused term that is hard to nail down. That is why I try to get people to use the specific technology term they are talking about. Basically in my world "cloud computing" is the vision of having computation and storage just 'out there' without having to worry about it and just paying for a bit more or less as you go... but its not a "technology". Sometimes it helps to flip the term ... for example "desktop computing" is sort of the inverse .. again its not a "technology" really either... just a broad term but we all kind of know what it means by now, like "laptop computing". There seem to be too major views on technologies to make this "cloud computing" happen. Their view on scale/transparency is considerably different. a) bigger layer 2 networks with Vmware type mobility and no IP address changes. Technolgies in this space are much more than just L2 switching, its L2 switching on larger scales with encapsulation, multipathing etc. This is where technologies like IEEE 802.1aq Shortest Path Bridging, IEEE 802.1ah mac-in-mac come to play. These tend to be appropriate for existing enterprise applications (or complete virtual desktops) and simply make existing DC L2 fabrics bigger and availale for virtualization. No application software changes required, its done under them and end hosts can't tell whats happening. b) All new applications/environments that don't care if their IP address changes and deal with it transparently. In this model you can make an application run anywhere, move it around etc without any special infrastructure .. the smarts are between the application and its hosts. Basically dumb infrastructure and smart applications a.k.a over the top stuff. I suppose the hot movement of one of these applications requires co-ordination by the application itself while if its done below as in a) it can be transparent. So depending on where you sit, generically run something anywhere v.s. run specific things anywhere you end up with slightly different underlying technologies... both with the overused moniker 'cloud'. Ok .. flame away .. ;) Peter