I’ve read a few posts over the last few days which try to answer the question ‘what is the cloud’. Not conceptually ‘what is it’, but physically what is if made off, what servers, data centres etc.
To my mind the point of the cloud is that as a customer you don’t need to know how many servers it uses, over how many data centres, supported by how many people. All you really need to be sure of is what services you will receive, or the overall service effect that you have agreed with your provider.
By using cloud services, especially in business, you’re abstracting yourself from all the details of running the service. Sure it’s interesting from a geek perspective but ultimately you’re acknowledging that those guys can do it better and maybe cheaper than you. That’s a good thing, you get get on with new stuff and taking the credit! :)