A year in the clouds

If there was one big trend in 2008 -- and by that we mean the buzz phrase on the lips of every analyst and vendor -- it was cloud computing. As with all new IT trends, levels of adoption were low. But adoption of what, exactly? The most interesting thing about cloud computing is that arguments over its definition continue to rage even as customers pay actual money for it.

In April, InfoWorld offered its definition of cloud computing, which turned out to be one of the most popular stories we've ever run. (That a 950-word definition could get so much traffic speaks volumes about the level of confusion over the cloud.) We tried to keep it simple: "Cloud computing encompasses any subscription-based or pay-per-use service that, in real time over the Internet, extends IT's existing capabilities."

[ Confused about the cloud? Check out InfoWorld's quick and easy definition in " What cloud computing really means." ]

We broke cloud services into seven categories. You could easily reduce that to three: infrastructure services such as Amazon EC2; software as a service à la Salesforce; and development platforms as a service (Microsoft Azure now offers the prime example). Those are the most important service groupings, although it's worth checking out the original article to get the complete picture.

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