Is IT of the Future Firmly Rooted in the 'Cloud'?

How will cloud computing evolve? Over the past 15 years, information technology has grown by commoditizing products within industry standards, while at the same time exploiting the potentials of virtualization, the rise of service-oriented architectures, and, most importantly, the universal popularity of the Internet and its Web.

Yes, says Google CEO Eric Schmidt. "Cloud computing is the story of our lifetime. Eventually all devices will be on the network," he told an audience of software developers at a conference of IBM's business partners.

Upstart Google and old-line IBM are forging an alliance to alloy their pioneering traditions in software and hardware in the cause of revolutionizing the acquisition and delivery of information technology. Gartner, which has studied and issued technical notes on the state of the concept, defines cloud computing as "a style of computing where massively scalable IT-enabled capabilities are delivered 'as a service' to external customers using Internet technologies." Basically, the hardware is pooled together and shared by all. ... Go to source