Discussion on:

Windows 8 will enable IT pros to implement the private cloud

Is your organization making plans for cloud computing.

Good thing MS is going to come in and save the day, rescue all of us from the way that we're already taking advantage of private clouds. Mighty big of them.

It's sort of like the part of the movie "Big Trouble in Little China" when Kurt Russel has a machine gun and it gets jammed. He jumps behind the shelves to unjam it and when he jumps out ready to fire is unjammed gun the Asian dude has wiped out the whole group of evil guys.
MS is trying to be a leader and show us the way. I guess they hadn't been reading about all the cloud implementations out there that have been used in various organizations successfully without Windoze 8.
BTW, virtualization is the biggest part of the cloud infrastructure. Without it you won't have
"lower up-front expenses
expenditure moved from capital expenditures to operational expenditures
better provisioning, utilization, and elasticity"
Time and time again they have demonstrated their inability to innovate and their ability to finally get it and get on board.
I'm so glad the MS can save us now. I was worried that nobody understood this cloud thingy and that it was about to fall on it's face and skid a few feet. Now I won't have to worry, they are here keeping us safe and secure.

There's confusion over the term "cloud" and "cloud computing", and the technology companies aren't making it easy by confusing the two themselves.

Cloud = the network not under your own control, or a portion of the network that is not locally relevant.

Cloud Computing = an elastic infrastructure that contains the network, compute (server), storage, and management pieces.

Microsoft is claiming the infrastructure doesn't make the cloud (read: cloud computing), and they're right. But I don't think anyone has claimed any such thing. Cloud computing is the combination of all four elements, which includes the infrastructure and management. They've created their version of the management piece.

.bob

First, WE HAVE SEEN MUCH OF WINDOWS EIGHT YET, let alone begun to install it and see how it performs. Maybe good, maybe Vista all over again and I am just moving people to Seven as it stands right now. Secondly, the CLOUD is a joke, another name (as rightly pointed out) for OUTSOURCING data centers and servers from room D505 to a room in India. F'Crissake, having sensitive data in the care of someone else is madness.

We can't do that. We're HIPPA regulated. I've heard that it's alright but the owners aren't going to let our data get out of our control and they would have to arm wrestle me to do so.

I was just getting my head around how the cloud is a bunch of servers in the sky with diamonds... but now Windows 8 is joining them, that's groovy man!!